LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 
GIFT—  CK.  .  H . 

Class 


S.  A.  R.  ADDRESS 

1900 
A.  S.  BATCHELLOR 


RANGER  SERVICE 

IN  THE  UPPER  VALLEY  OF  THE 
CONNECTICUT 


MOST  NORTHERLY  REGIMENT 

OF  THE 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE  MILITIA 

IN  THE  PERIOD  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 
AN  ADDRESS 

DELIVERED    BEFORE    THE     NEW    HAMPSHIRE    SOCIETY    OF    SONS   OF   THE 
AMERICAN  REVOLUTION  AT  CONCORD,  N.  H.,  APRIL  26,  1900, 

BY 

ALBERT  STILLMAN  BATCHELLOR. 


CONCORD,  N.   H.  : 
THE   RUMFORD   FRE55 


LiTTLrroH.  EDITOR  OF  STATE  PAPi 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 


THE   RANGER  SERVICE 
IN  UPPER  VALLEY  OF  THE  CONNECTICUT 

AND 

THE  MOST  NORTHERLY  REGIMENT  OP  THE  NEW 

HAMPSHIRE  MILITIA  IN  THE    PERIOD 

OF  THE  REVOLUTION. 

ALBERT  STILLMAN  BATCHELLOR. 

PROLOGUE. 

In  approaching  the  specific  theme  which  has  been  chosen  for  this 
address  certain  preliminary  suggestions  may  be  permissible  : 

i.  A  correct  understanding  of  the  geography  of  any  locality  re 
lated  to  events  to  be  described  is  an  important  prerequisite  in  the 
treatment  of  such  a  subject  as  is  now  under  consideration.  The 
"Twelfth  Regiment  of  Foot,"  as  the  most  northerly  organization  of 
the  provincial  military  establishment  was  termed,  was  a  description 
and  designation  in  military  phrase  of  a  region  which  was  then  recently 
settled,  and,  for  the  larger  part,  sparsely  populated.  It  extended 
along  the  Connecticut  river  on  the  New  Hampshire  side  from  Or- 
ford  to  Colebrook.  The  settlements  on  the  Vermont  side  of  the  river 
had  not  been  extended  as  far  north  as  those  of  the  New  Hampshire 
pioneers  on  the  east  side,  except  a  very  few  that  had  been  effected  by 
those  going  north  by  way  of  Lancaster,  and  occupying  the  valley 
along  the  river  opposite  Lancaster,  Northumberland,  and  Stratford. 
To  the  east  of  the  Twelfth  Regiment  was  a  mountain  wilderness.  The 
northern  part  of  the  Connecticut  valley,  lying  between  the  Upper  Coos 
on  the  north  and  the  Ammonoosuc  valley  and  the  Lower  Coos  on  the 
south,  had  not  been  securely  settled.  Thus  the  extreme  north  part 
of  the  regiment  was  isolated  from  the  south  part.  The  locality  of  the 
regiment  was,  therefore,  a  narrow  tongue  of  settled  and  unsettled 
townships  eighty  miles  in  length,  with  vast  tracts  of  virgin  wilderness 
on  either  side.  Forts  had  been  constructed  at  Haverhill,  Bath,  Lis 
bon  (then  known  as  Concord  or  Gunthwaite),  Lancaster,  Northum 
berland,  and  Stratford.  A  line  drawn  due  east  and  west  through  Ben- 
nington  to  the  Connecticut  river  was  sixty  miles  south  of  Orford.  An 
uninhabited  and  mountainous  region  seventy  miles  wide  intervened 


228229 


between  the  principal  part  of  this  regiment  and  the  line  of  military 
operations  along  the  Champlain  route;  it  was  eighty  miles  from 
Stratford,  and  a  hundred  miles  from  Newbury  to  St.  Johns  in  Can 
ada  ;  and  the  distance  was  a  hundred  miles  from  the  southern  boun 
dary  of  the  regiment  to  the  seat  of  operations  about  Boston. 

2.  A  regiment  of  militia  in  the  Revolutionary  period  was  a  territorial 
designation,  and  not,  as  now,  an  aggregation  of  organized  men  as 
sembled  by  companies  and  battalions  without  reference  to  the  location 
and  residence  of  their   individual  constituents.     It  was  a  provision 
of  law  that  certain  contiguous  towns  should  form  a  regiment.     The 
designated  area  constituted  the  regiment,  and  every  able-bodied  man 
of  military  age,  with  a  few  statutory  exceptions,  was  a  member  of  the 
regiment  in  the  same  sense  that  a  citizen  is  at  this  day  a  part  of  his 
senatorial  district.     It  was  not  usual  to  attempt  to  get  one  of  these 
regiments  into  active  service  in  its  entirety.     In  fact,  this  was  practi 
cally  impossible.     It  was  not  ordinarily  necessary  to  call  out    every 
enrolled  soldier,  and  if  such  a  call  could  have  been  made  effective  it 
would  have  deprived  the  district  of  almost  its  entire  body  of  citizens 
engaged  in  its   various  avocations.     Out  of  these  regiments    minute- 
men  were  organized  into  other  regiments  to  be  immediately  available 
in  cases  of  emergency.     On  other  occasions  quotas  were  assessed 
upon  the  militia  regiments,  and  these  contingents  were  assembled 
and  reorganized  into  new    companies,  battalions,  and  regiments.     In 
exceptional  instances  summary  calls  were  made  on  all  the  militia  to 
volunteer  for  campaigns  like  that  at  Saratoga,  when,  as   General  Bur- 
goyne  said,  the  New  England  militia  hung  like  a  black  cloud  upon 
his  left.     Liberal  as  the  response  was  at  that  time,  it  was  not  univer 
sal.     Stark's  first  brigade  was  returning  while  his  second  body  of  vol 
unteers  was  assembling  for  Saratoga.    This  explains  the  fact  that  such 
prominent  militia  officers  or  military  men  as  Col.  Timothy  Bedel  of 
Haverhill,   Lieut. -Col.  David  Webster  of  Plymouth,   and  Lieut. -Col. 
Charles  Johnston  of  Haverhill    were  volunteers,  one  at  Bennington, 
the  others  at  Saratoga.     Had  their  militia  regiments  been  called  into 
service,  in  the  form  and  entirety  of  their  primary  organization,  these 
men  would  not  have  been  doing  duty  as  volunteers  in  the  temporary 
regiments  in  the  field. 

3.  The  student  of  the  official   records  of  this  period,  both  those 
of  military   and   those    of  civil    character,  will    observe    superficially 
that  titles  were   freely  employed  in  the  designation  of  persons.     A 
more  critical  examination  of  this  feature  of  the  old  prints  and  manu 
scripts  will  establish  the  assumption  that  these  titles  were  applied  with 


scrupulous  accuracy.  When  the  verifying  documents  can  be  found  it 
is  always  discovered  that  the  prefix  which  appears  in  other  connec 
tions  is  correct,  and  that  the  person  to  whom  it  is  accorded  in  speech  or 
writing  receives  only  the  distinction  to  which  he  is  rightfully  entitled. 
An  act  of  the  Revolutionary  period  of  a  somewhat  peculiar  import 
created  a  section  of  militia  to  be  composed  of  men  in  advanced  years, 
who  had  passed  the  usual  age  limit  of  military  service.1  The  com 
panies  so  constituted  were  each  entitled  to  a  captain  holding  the  rank 
of  colonel,  a  lieutenant  of  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel,  and  an  ensign 
of  the  rank  of  major.  Although  this  law  was  not  long  in  force,  it 
served  to  multiply  the  number  of  officers  bearing  the  titles  of  the  higher 
grades  of  military  service. 

4.  The  opposite  side  of  the  river  from  Morey's  regiment  was  occu 
pied  by  regiments  of  Vermont  militia,  the  upper  one  commanded  by 
Jacob  Kent  of  Newbury  and  the  lower  one  by  Peter  Olcott  of  Nor 
wich.  Thomas  Johnson  of  Newbury  was  lieutenant-colonel  of  Kent's 
regiment.  Jacob  Bayley  of  Newbury,  a  colonel  at  the  beginning  of 
the  war  and  later  a  brigadier-general,  also  serving  as  commissary- 
general  for  the  Northern  department,  exercised  a  commanding  in 
fluence  on  both  sides  of  the  river  throughout  the  war.  He  is  regarded 
now,  with  good  reason,  as  one  of  the  neglected  heroes  of  the  Revolu 
tion.  His  services  were  of  singular  value  at  all  stages  of  the  conflict. 
He  was  skilful  and  potent  in  management  of  the  Indians  who  roamed 
the  wilderness  between  the  frontiers  of  the  Vermont  and  New  Hamp 
shire  settlements  and  those  of  Canada.  (Hist,  of  Newbury,  Vt.,  by 
Frederic  P.  Wells,  p.  73.) 

In  co-operation  with  Hurd,  Charles  Johnston,  Thomas  Johnson, 
Kent,  Morey,  Childs,  Olcott,  and  Bedel,  he  succeeded  in  such  meas 
ures  for  the  protection  of  the  settlements  in  the  northern  valley  of 
the  Connecticut  that  the  inhabitants  were  not  only  able  to  hold  their 
ground  but  also  to  accomplish  some  extension  of  their  farms  and 
clearings.  The  recent  history  of  Newbury,  Vt.,  by  Mr.  Wells,  con 
tains  an  admirable  presentation  of  the  story  of  the  Revolution  as 
related  to  this  region.  It  is  a  progressive  addition  to  the  notably  satis 
factory  treatment  of  the  same  subject,  in  its  special  reference  to  Hano 
ver  and  vicinity,  by  Judge  Frederick  Chase  in  his  history  of  that 
town. 

The  military  events  which  transpired  in  Upper  Cobs,  as  the  western 
side  of  the  present  county  of  Coos  was  designated  in  the  Revolution 
ary  period,  have  been  accorded  thorough  and  reliable  treatment  in  the 

1  Passed  June  24,  1786.     Laws,  i78o-'89,  p.  409. 


History  of  Coos  County  by  Fergusson,  1888,  and  in  the  History  of 
Lancaster  by  A.  N.  Somers,  1899. 

In  1775  Canada  was  occupied  by  the  Americans.  They  had 
carried  the  war  into  the  enemy's  country.  This  proved  to  be  the 
best  possible  method  of  protecting  the  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire 
frontiers.  Until  the  termination  of  these  operations  in  Canadian 
territory  by  the  retreat  of  the  army  finally  under  General  Sullivan  in 
the  month  of  June,  1776,  comparative  security  for  the  Coos  country 
resulted  from  the  fact  that  the  enemy  had  all  it  could  do  to  protect  it 
self  at  home.  This  was  the  status  upon  which  the  people  of  this  re 
gion  relied  with  good  reason  until  the  summer  of  1776.  In  July  of 
that  year  the  immediate  defense  of  the  Upper  Coos  was  provided  for 
by  the  dispatch  or  assignment  of  a  company  of  50  men  for  service  in 
the  region  of  Northumberland  and  Stratford  under  command  of  Jere 
miah  Eames.  At  the  former  place  Fort  Weare  was  erected.  This 
company  served  from  July  13  to  October  13,  1776.  (17  State  Papers, 
65.)  Three  statements  from  the  inhabitants  of  these  towns  addressed 
to  the  general  court,  one  of  date  September  16,  one  September  26, 
1776  (17  State  Papers,  77,  78,  79),  and  one  without  date  (8  State 
Papers,  379),  afford  interesting  accounts  of  the  state  of  affairs  on 
this  frontier.  Evidently  there  were  two  parties  among  the  people  of 
that  locality,  one  recommending  Captain  Eames  and  one  Captain 
Bucknam  for  the  command  of  the  rangers  in  that  region  and  of  the 
garrison  at  Fort  Weare.  Captain  Eames  succeeded  in  securing  the 
endorsement  of  the  legislature.  The  next  company  raised  for  service 
at  this  point  consisted  of  26  men,  and  was  under  command  of  Captain 
Eames.  They  were  on  duty  from  October  14  to  December  I,  1776. 
(17  State  Papers,  113.)  A  third  company  under  Captain  Eames, 
consisting  of  1 1  men  for  winter  duty  at  the  Upper  Coos,  served  from 
December  2,  1776,  to  April  15,  1777.  (14  State  Papers,  473.) 

Meanwhile  at  the  Lower  Coos  similar  measures  were  being  taken  for 
the  public  defense  in  the  summer  and  fall  of  1776.  Capt.  Thomas 
Simpson  of  Haverhill  with  52  men,  serving  from  September  14  to 
December  2,  Capt.  Samuel  Atkinson  of  Boscawen  with  49  men,  serv 
ing  from  September  I  to  December  I,  and  Capt.  Josiah  Russell  of 
Plainfield  with  53  men,  serving  from  September  19  to  December  I, 
guarded  that  region.  (17  State  Papers,  82,  83,  88,  89,  91,  92.) 

Colonel  Hurd,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Johnston,  James  Bayley,  and 
Maj.  Jonathan  Hale  were  authorized  to  give  directions  as  to  the 
scouting  routes  of  Simpson's  and  Russell's  companies.  (8  State  Papers, 
335?  336.) 


A  company  was  also  raised  for  the  same  purpose  to  be  under  the 
immediate  command  of  Capt.  David  Woodward  of  Hanover,  but  under 
the  general  direction  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Johnston  and  General  Bay- 
ley  at  Coos.  (17  State  Papers,  67.)  Colonel  Kurd  reports  that  this 
company  was  operating  at  Royalton,  Vt.,  and  apparently  without  taking 
directions  from  the  superior  officers  at  the  Coos  designated  for  it  by 
the  vote  of  the  general  court.  (8  State  Papers,  315.)  Later  Cap 
tain  Woodward  appears  to  have  been  at  Haverhill  in  person,  and  to 
have  been  the  bearer  of  messages  sent  by  Colonel  Kurd  to  the  govern 
ment  at  Exeter.  (8  State  Papers,  326,  327.)  During  the  winter  of 
i776-'77  and  the  year  1777  the  offensive  operations  that  were  in  pro 
gress,  and  which  culminated  in  October  at  Saratoga,  were  the  suffi 
cient  guaranty  of  a  reasonable  protection  of  this  valley.  The  business 
of  British-Canadian-Indian-Tory  raiding  seemed  to  have  been  concen 
trated  and  confined  at  this  period  within  a  region  lying  along  the 
track  of  Burgoyne's  movements. 

In  the  winter  of  1 777^78  the  continental  congress  threatened  an  in 
vasion  of  Canada,  with  a  proposition  to  put  Stark  in  command  of  it. 
Bedel  was  authorized  to  raise  a  regiment  in  this  valley  and  in  the  ad 
jacent  regions  for  the  same  enterprise.  The  men  were  enrolled  by  him 
in  December,  1777,  and,  upon  a  change  of  purpose  in  regard  to  the 
Canadian  expedition  or  the  actual  accomplishment  of  that  purpose  by 
the  mere  fact  of  its  announcement,  Bedel's  regiment  was  disbanded 
in  March,  1778.  (16  State  Papers,  306.)  Soon  after,  however,  the 
plan  of  carrying  the  war  back  into  Canada  was  again  prominent  in 
continental  councils.  Lafayette  was  now  designated  to  command  the 
army  of  invasion.  Bedel  enrolled  another  regiment  in  the  expecta 
tion,  as  he  stated,  that  it  would  have  service  in  the  North.  (15  State 
Papers,  584.)  Stark  called  upon  Bedel  to  send  the  regiment  to  New 
York,  where  a  part  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Wheelock  actually  pro 
ceeded  in  partial  compliance  with  orders  of  Gates  and  Stark.  The 
organization  was  continued  certainly  until  the  following  November,  and 
possibly  until  the  next  March  (1779),  which  was  the  date  of  the  ex 
piration  of  the  terms  of  enlistment.  (17  N.  H.  State  Papers,  232,  233, 
237,  239,  243,  et  passim ;  chapter  on  the  Revolution,  Chase's  History 
of  Hanover  and  Dartmouth  College  ;  correspondence  of  John  Stark  in 
his  Memoir  by  Caleb  Stark,  passim ;  Potter,  Military  Hist,  of  N.  H., 
account  of  Bedel's  later  regiments,  Part  2,  pp.  387-392  ;  Aldrich, 
"  The  Affair  of  the  Cedars  and  the  Services  of  Col.  Timothy  Bedel  in 
the  War  of  the  Revolution, "3  Proceedings  N.  H.  Hist.  Soc.,  194-231.) 

Bedel's  battalion  on  the  frontier  seems  to  have  remained  of  neces- 


8 

sity  in  service  until  relieved  by  other  local  levies  in  March,  and  by 
Colonel  Hazen's  regiment  in  May,  1779. 

General  Bayley  writes  Bedel,  March  16,  1779:  "Agreeable  to 
your  Letter  the  committee  met  at  Dresden,  Capt  Morey  is  arrived 
with  a  Party  to  relieve  your  Guards."  "20  men  was  ordered  with 
Capt.  Morey,  and  30  are  ready  from  Lebanon  and  Colo  Olcot."  (17 
State  Papers,  320,  321.) 

It  may,  perhaps,  be  a  reasonable  inference  from  the  facts  now  de 
veloped  in  the  history  of  that  period  that  General  Washington  was 
not  in  sympathy  with  the  plans  for  another  invasion  of  Canada.  It 
would  appear  also  that  their  abandonment  was  contemporary  with  the 
downfall  of  the  so-called  "  Conway  Cabal." 

At  this  time  (1778)  the  union  of  seventeen  towns  (including  Dres 
den),  all  of  them  except  Cornish  being  in  Grafton  county,  with  the 
towns  west  of  the  river,  had  been  apparently  effected,  and  Colonel 
Morey  and  Colonel  Bedel  were  now  members  of  the  Vermont  legisla 
ture.  This  movement  was  strenuously  antagonized  by  the  Benning- 
ton  and  the  Exeter  state  governments,  and  this  first  so-called  union 
soon  collapsed. 

It  was,  of  course,  inevitable  that  these  political  considerations  should 
disadvantageously  affect  the  military  status  of  Colonel  Bedel  and  his 
regiment  in  the  relations  which  would  necessarily  exist  with  these 
two  state  governments.  (Town  and  College  in  the  Revolution,  History 
of  Hanover  and  D.  C.,  by  Frederick  Chase,  p.  390  et  seq.,  469.) 

It  was  proposed,  in  the  spring  of  1779,  to  have  the  scattered  detach 
ments  of  Whitcomb's  rangers  collected  and  stationed  at  Haverhill  for 
the  defense  of  that  region.  This  was  presumably  not  accomplished, 
as  Hazen's  continentals,  consisting  of  17  companies,  several  of  them 
being  constituted  of  French-Canadians  who  had  enlisted  in  Canada 
with  him  and  remained  in  his  command,  a  total  of  between  500  and 
600  officers  and  men,  according  to  the  rolls  of  the  regiment  as  made 
up  in  the  fall  of  1778,  were  ordered  to  the  Lower  Coos.  (18  State 
Papers,  911-916.)  They  arrived  here  about  the  first  of  May,  1779, 
and  remained  until  September.  (17  State  Papers,  292-309,  331.) 

"After  the  departure  of  Hazen's  regiment  the  frontiers  were 
guarded  by  the  regiment  of  Col.  Moses  Nichols  for  a  short  time,  when 
that,  too,  was  withdrawn  to  West  Point,  and  the  people  were  left  to 
take  care  of  themselves  as  best  they  might  under  the  command  of  Maj. 
Benjamin  Whitcomb.11  (Potter,  Mil.  Hist.  N.  H.,  366;  8  State  Pa 
pers,  869,  872;  Chase,  Hist.  Hanover,  402.) 

Meanwhile,  in  the  same  year,  the  state  had  provided  a  company 


of  scouts,  5  men,  under  Capt.  Jonah  Chapman  of  Campton,  for  ser 
vice  in  the  Upper  Coos.  These  men  were  on  duty  from  July  15  to 
October  i .  The  inhabitants  of  the  three  towns  of  Lancaster,  North 
umberland,  and  Stratford  organized  as  a  municipal  group,  certainly 
this  year  and  perhaps  in  other  years.  They  chose  a  committee  of 
safety  for  1779  and  provided  for  a  local  military  organization  for  the 
defense  of  these  settlements,  then  the  most  northerly  in  the  state. 
(13  State  Papers,  474,  475;  15  Id.,  705;  Fergusson,  Hist.  Coos 
County,  86,  87;  Hist,  of  Lancaster,  83.)  Nathan  Caswell,  formerly 
and  afterwards  of  Apthorp  (now  Littleton),  was  made  captain  of  this 
organization  of  the  settlers. 

In  June  of  this  year  a  party  of  Indians  with  a  French-Canadian  leader 
had  raided  Stratford,  taking  away  considerable  plunder  and  two  pris 
oners.  This  affair  of  course  served  to  intensify  the  sense  of  insecurity 
which  prevailed  in  that  season  in  the  north  country.  (Hist,  of  Lan 
caster,  82.) 

In  January,  1780,  a  convention  of  towns  on  both  sides  of  the  river 
in  the  vicinity  of  Hanover  and  Norwich  voted  to  enlist  or  detach  a 
regiment  of  500  minute  men,  David  Woodward  to  be  colonel,  and  two 
companies  of  scouts,  each  of  61  men,  one  of  the  companies  being 
commanded  by  Timothy  Bush.  The  proportion  of  Morey's  regiment 
for  the  minute  men  was  130  and  of  the  scouts  36. 

This  activity  is  thus  explained : 

"  In  January,  1780,  information  was  received  that  the  Indians  were 
preparing  to  make  a  descent  during  the  winter.  There  was  a  general 
apprehension  of  an  attack,  not  only  on  account  of  the  defenceless 
state  of  the  frontier,  but  also  from  an  idea  that  the  Indians  were  espe 
cially  exasperated  against  New  Hampshire  because  of  the  havoc  made 
among  the  Six  Nations  the  preceding  autumn  by  the  New  Hampshire 
troops  under  the  New  Hampshire  general,  Sullivan."  (History  of  Han 
over,  Chase,  p.  402.) 

Lieut.  James  Ladd  of  Haverhill  served  with  a  detachment,  in 
connection  with  Captain  Lovevvell  of  Vermont,  in  January,  February, 
March,  and  April,  1780.  Capt.  Joseph  Hutchins  of  Haverhill,  later 
in  the  same  year,  had  command  of  a  company  of  rangers  consisting  of 
52  men.  (Potter,  Mil.  Hist.  N.  H.,  Part  2,  p.  395.) 

Capt.  Peter  Kimball  of  Boscawen  and  Capt.  Thomas  Nichols 
of  Antrim  were  in  command  of  companies  of  rangers  at  Coos,  raised 
in  February  and  discharged  in  April,  1780.  (16  State  Papers,  215.) 

Samuel  Paine  of  Lebanon  was  captain  of  a  company  of  32  officers 
and  men  serving  six  months  from  June  18,  1780,  and,  according  to  a 


10 

memorandum  in  the  pay-roll,  at  the  upper  Coos.  (16  State  Papers, 
178,  179.) 

The  house  of  representatives  by  vote  of  June  22,  1780,  authorized 
the  raising  of  120  men  to  be  sent  to  the  western  frontiers  of  the  state 
to  reinforce  Major  Whitcomb. 

One  company  was  commanded  by  Ephraim  Stone  of  Westmoreland, 
45  officers  and  men,  enlisted  in  July  for  six  months.  Capt.  Samuel 
Runels  of  Durham  commanded  another  company  of  37  officers  and 
men,  raised  for  six  months'  service  by  the  same  authority  and  for  the 
same  purpose.  (16  State  Papers,  166,  167,  168,  169,  215.) 

It  is  not  improbable  that  the  companies  of  Hutchins,  Stone,  and 
Runels  were  constituted  out  of  the  120  men  raised  under  the  authority 
above  mentioned. 

Another  and  later  company  was  engaged  in  the  same  service  under 
Lieut.  John  Adams  of  Moultonborough.  It  was  raised  in  October 
and  discharged  in  November,  1780.  (16  State  Papers,  215. ) 

Whitcomb's  corps,  sometime  previous  to  this  year,  had  been  made 
a  part  of  the  continental  establishment.  Its  personal  constituents  for 
1780  are  given  in  16  N.  H.  State  Papers,  170,  171. 

In  1781  several  raids  occurred  and  were  the  occasion  of  extraordi 
nary  alarm  in  the  Upper  and  Lower  Coos.  One  of  these  incursions 
reached  Dartmouth  (now  Jefferson),  and  Joseph  Whipple,  then  the 
most  prominent  resident  of  that  region,  narrowly  escaped  capture  on 
his  own  plantation. 

In  June  of  this  year  a  part  of  a  company  under  Lieut.  Peter 
Stearns  was  raised  at  Plymouth  by  Colonel  Webster  and  forwarded  to 
these  frontiers.  (Potter,  Mil.  Hist.  N.  H.,  Part  2,  p.  395.) 

Aroused  by  the  audacity  of  the  Dartmouth  raid  the  state  authorities 
forwarded  a  company  under  command  of  Jacob  Smith  of  Sandwich,  49 
officers  and  men,  for  the  defense  of  the  "  northern  frontiers."  These 
men  served  from  August  29  to  November  6,  1781.  (Potter,  Mil.  His. 
N.  H.,  Part  2,  p.  396.) 

Sergt.  James  Ladd  of  Haverhill  had  a  scout  of  eleven  men  on  the 
western  frontiers  from  January  28  to  April  j,  1782,  operating  from 
Haverhill.  (16  State  Papers,  293.) 

Sergeant  James  Blake's  party  "  for  the  defense  of  the  upper  Coos," 
consisted  of  1 1  men,  and  was  in  that  service  n  months  and  18  days 
from  April  13,  1782.  (16  State  Papers,  288.) 

At  the  Lower  Coos  two  companies  were  on  duty  the  same  season. 
One  was  commanded  by  Capt.  Ebenezer  Webster  of  Salisbury,  the 
father  of  the  statesman  and  a  veteran  of  Bunker  Hill  and  Bennington, 


II 

67  officers  and  men,  in  service  from  April  I  to  November  at  Haverhill 
and  vicinity  (16  State  Papers,  295),  and  the  other,  a  party  of  13  men 
under  Capt.  Jonathan  Smith  of  Surry,  on  duty  in  the  same  region 
from  July  4  to  September  30.  (16  State  Papers,  298.) 

The  Conway  and  Androscoggin  scouting  companies  have  not  been 
particularly  mentioned  in  this  narrative,  but  they  were  valuable  auxilia 
ries  to  the  defense  of  northern  New  Hampshire  by  their  operations  on 
the  passable  approaches  to  the  Upper  Coos  from  the  eastern  side  of  the 
mountain  and  lake  region. 

There  were  many  special  alarms  in  respect  to  which  the  militia  were 
called  out  or  volunteered  in  this  section,  or  that  of  other  sections  came 
to  the  relief  of  this,  of  which  a  detailed  account  has  not  been  attempted 
in  this  narrative.  The  capture  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Johnson  at 
Peacham  and  the  Royalton  affair,  as  to  which  the  storm  centers  were 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  last-named  town  and  along  the  valley  of  the  Con 
necticut  to  Newbury,  are  examples  of  these  episodes.  (History  of  Han 
over,  410-421  ;  History  of  Newbury,  Vt.,  passivi.} 

Whitcomb's  corps  of  rangers  was  largely  recruited  from  the  Connec 
ticut  valley.  It  is  probable  that  they  had  at  several  periods  important 
part  in  the  defense  of  the  frontiers  of  northeastern  Vermont  and  north 
western  New  Hampshire.  These  men  were  led  with  superior  skill  and 
audacity,  and  performed  valuable  service  of  the  same  kind  as  that  for 
which  Rogers's  men  were  famous  in  the  French  and  Indian  war. 

A  memoir  of  Major  Benjamin  Whitcomb  and  an  account  of  his  corps 
is  in  preparation  by  George  F.  Morris,  Esq.,  of  Lisbon,  at  which 
place  that  officer  resided  after  the  war,  and  will  afford  a  valuable 
additional  chapter  of  Revolutionary  history  as  respects  a  special  line  of 
operations  in  the  general  field,  as  well  as  new  light  on  important  mil 
itary  events  and  movements  on  the  frontiers  of  New  Hampshire  and 
Vermont. 

It  is  difficult  at  this  day  to  determine  what  other  influences,  besides 
those  exerted  in  the  ordinary  military  way,  and  as  such  made  the  sub 
ject  of  historical  record,  served  to  protect  this  region  in  the  Revolu 
tionary  period.  The  temporizing  policy  of  some  of  the  Vermont 
leaders,  which  has  been  disclosed  to  some  extent  in  the  so-called 
««  Haldimand  Correspondence"  (Records  of  Vermont,  2  Gov.  and  Coun 
cil,  pp.  398-485),  may  have  had  the  result  of  modifying  or  postponing 
the  prosecution  of  guerrilla  warfare  in  Vermont  and  western  New 
Hampshire  by  staying  the  encouragement  and  initiative  of  such  oper 
ations  on  the  part  of  those  in  authority  in  Canada.  It  is  also  believed 
that  the  influence  of  President  Eleazer  Wheelock  of  Dartmouth  college 


12 

with  Joseph  Brant,  the  famous  Mohawk  Indian  leader  and  once  a 
pupil  of  Dr.  Wheelock,  was  another  important  factor  affecting  the  atti 
tude  of  the  Indians  in  a  favorable  way  towards  the  inhabitants  of  the 
Connecticut  valley.  (Wells,  Hist,  of  Newbury,  Vt.,  104.) 

This  well-informed  writer  well  says  (p.  97)  that  "people  in  these 
days  who  suppose  that  the  Revolutionary  war  ended  with  the  surrender 
of  Cornwallis  in  October,  1781,  will  be  surprised  to  know  that  at  no 
period  in  the  war  did  the  patriot  cause  seem  more  hopeless  to  the  peo 
ple  in  Cobs,  or  their  own  situation  more  dangerous,  than  in  the  two 
years  mentioned"  [i.  e.,  the  two  years  succeeding  that  event]. 

It  may  also  be  suggested  in  passing  that  the  divided  allegiance  that 
existed  during  the  entire  period  of  the  war  among  the  people  of  the 
lower  Coos  between  the  governments  of  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire 
could  hardly  be  otherwise  than  detrimental  to  almost  any  plan  of  cam 
paign  against  the  common  enemy. 

As  the  stress  of  war  moved  to  the  west  and  south  the  Loyalist  ele 
ments  became  more  active  and  aggressive  in  the  east.  Between  1779 
and  1783  Vermont  was  seriously  harassed,  and  the  people  of  western 
New  Hampshire  were  kept  in  a  state  of  constant  alarm  by  these  ma 
rauders.  At  this  time  Rogers  and  Pritchard  were  making  their  mis 
chievous  and  not  infrequently  destructive  incursions  on  the  Vermont 
side  of  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut.  Among  the  more  important 
depredations  of  these  and  similar  bands  are  to  be  named  the  descent 
upon  Peacham  and  the  capture  of  Thomas  Johnson,  the  investment  of 
Newbury,  including  the  two  unsuccessful  attempts  to  capture  General 
Bayley,  and  the  destruction  of  Royalton. 

The  heroic  endurance  of  the  frontier  farmers  all  through  these 
eight  years  of  doubtful,  harassing,  and  destructive  struggle  constitutes 
a  monumental  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  achievement  of  American 
independence. 

5.  In  these  days  far  removed  from  that  long,  doubtful  and  heroic 
struggle  we  often  speculate,  and  invoke  the  service  of  theory  and 
imagination,  as  to  the  spectacle  of  the  "embattled  farmers"  as 
they  stood  in  formation  at  Bunker  hill,  at  Saratoga,  and  at  Yorktown. 
There  is  a  picture,  word-painted  at  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne,  which, 
in  vivid  and  inspiring  portrayal  of  the  personnel  of  those  victorious 
columns,  is  not  surpassed  in  graphic  eloquence  in  the  literature  of  the 
Revolution.  It  is  given  in  a  letter  by  a  British  officer  who  was  in 
cluded  in  Burgoyne's  capitulation,  and  I  cannot  forego  the  opportunity 
to  reproduce  it  as  the  best  contemporary  descrip  tion  of  the  youth  and 
manhood  who,  trained,  disciplined,  and  organized  as  were  our  fore 
fathers,  the  minute-men,  at  the  call  of  Stark,  of  Sullivan,  of  Whipple, 


13 

of  Poor,  of  Weare,  and  of  Langdon,  marching  with  the  colors  and 
challenging  the  hosts  of  the  enemy  from  New  Hampshire  to  Georgia, 
wrested  victory  from  the  greatest  power  in  the  Old  World,  and  made  a 
republic  possible. 

The  closing  scene  of  this  most  memorable  campaign  is  thus  de 
scribed  by  one  of  the  actors  in  it.  He  says  : 

"About  ten  o'clock  we  marched  out,  according  to  treaty,  with  drums 
beating,  and  the  honors  of  war ;  but  the  drums  seemed  to  have  lost 
their  former  inspiriting  sounds,  and  though  we  beat  the  '  Grenadiers' 
March,'  which,  not  long  before,  was  so  animating,  yet  now  it  seemed 
by  its  last  feeble  effort  as  if  almost  ashamed  to  be  heard  on  such  an 
occasion. 

"  I  shall  never  forget  the  appearance  of  the  American  troops  on  our 
marching  past  them.  A  dead  silence  reigned  through  their  numerous 
columns.  I  must  say  their  decent  behavior  to  us,  so  greatly  fallen, 
merited  the  utmost  praise.  .  .  .  Not  one  of  them  was  uniformly 
clad.  Each  had  on  the  clothes  he  wore  in  the  fields,  the  church,  or 
the  tavern;  they  stood,  however,  like  soldiers,  well  arranged,  and 
with  a  military  air,  in  which  there  was  but  little  to  find  fault  with. 
All  the  muskets  had  bayonets,  and  the  sharpshooters  had  rifles.  The 
men  all  stood  so  still  that  we  were  filled  with  wonder.  Not  one  of 
them  made  a  single  motion  as  if  he  would  speak  with  his  neighbor. 
Nay,  more,  all  the  lads  that  stood  there  in  rank  and  file  kind  nature 
had  formed  so  trim,  so  slender,  so  nervous  that  it  was  a  pleasure  to 
look  at  them,  and  we  were  all  surprised  at  the  sight  of  such  a 
handsome,  well-formed  race.  The  whole  nation  had  a  natural  turn 
for  war  and  a  soldier's  life. 

"  The  generals  wore  uniforms  and  belts,  which  designated  their 
rank,  but  most  of  the  colonels  were  in  their  ordinary  clothes,  with  a 
musket  and  bayonet  in  hand,  and  a  cartridge-box  or  powder-horn 
slung  over  the  shoulder.  There  were  regular  regiments,  which,  for 
want  of  time  or  cloth,  were  not  yet  equipped  in  uniform.  These  had 
standards,  with  various  emblems  and  mottoes,  some  of  which  had  a 
very  satirical  meaning  for  us."  ("  Burgoyne's  Invasion  of  1777,"  by 
Samuel  Adams  Drake,  pp.  137-138.) 

ADDRESS. 

Mr.  President  and  Members  of  the  Society  of  Sons  of  the  American 
Revohition  : 

At  the  close  of  the  French  and  Indian  war  the  military  system  of 
the  province  of  New  Hampshire  was  in  a  state  of  marked  efficiency. 
It  was  definitely  established  by  law.  The  several  organizations  were 


well  equipped  and  well  officered.  Nearly  all  of  them  were  numerically 
strong,  and  geographically  distributed  with  judicious  reference  to  con 
siderations  of  organization,  instruction,  and  mobilization.  The  per 
sonnel  of  the  militia  of  that  day  had  the  benefit  of  a  traditional  spirit, 
which  was  developed,  stimulated,  and  intensified  by  the  dangers 
attendant  upon  actual  frontier  service  through  generation  after  genera 
tion,  for  a  period  of  more  than  a  hundred  years.  The  hereditary 
aptitude  of  the  people  in  military  enterprise  had  been  well  proven  by 
the  requirements  of  many  arduous  campaigns  in  the  long  war  which 
was  terminated  by  the  peace  of  I76O,1  and  by  which  all  the  French 
possessions  to  the  northward  were  acquired.  Immediately  after  this 
event  an  overflowing  population,  seeking  new  fields  for  settlement, 
poured  into  the  unoccupied  lands  in  the  northern  and  western  parts  of 
the  province,  and  over  the  Connecticut  river  upon  the  New  Hampshire 
grants. 

By  an  act  of  the  assembly  five  counties  were  erected  in  1771,  but 
Grafton  and  Strafford  were  not  organized  till  1773.  ("  History  of 
Administration  of  the  Law  in  Grafton  County,"  Child's  Gaz.,  32.) 
Contemporaneously  with  the  establishment  of  a  county  administration 
of  civil  affairs,  it  seems  that  the  militia  system  was  extended  over  the 
same  territory.  (Mills  and  Hicks,  British  and  Am.  Reg.,  1774.) 
Two  additional  province  regiments  were  accordingly  created,  with 
headquarters  for  the  first  at  Plymouth,  and  for  the  second  at  Haverhill. 
The  field  officers  of  the  Second  Grafton  regiment  were  Hon.  John 
Hurd  of  Haverhill,  colonel,  Asa  Porter,  Esq.,  of  Haverhill,  lieuten 
ant-colonel,  and  William  Simpson,  Esq.,  of  Orford,  major.  For  the 
first  regiment,  Hon.  John  Fenton  was  colonel,  David  Hobart,  lieu 
tenant-colonel,  and  Jonathan  M.  Sevvall,  major.  Colonel  Hurd,  then 
holding  the  offices  of  chief  justice  of  the  court  of  common  pleas, 
receiver  of  quit-rents,  county  treasurer,  and  register  of  deeds,  was 
the  most  prominent  citizen  of  the  Coos  country.  (Biography,  by 
William  F.  Whitcher,  Grafton  and  Coos  Bar  Asso.  Proceedings,  1888, 
vol.  i,  p.  467;  Proceedings  N.  H.  Society  of  Colonial  Wars,  1902.) 
At  this  time  regiments  for  military  purposes  were  territorial  designa 
tions.  Fenton's  regiment  embraced  approximately  that  part  of  the 
county  which  is  now  known  as  the  eastern  judicial  district,  and  was 
numbered  eleven  ;  and  Kurd's  occupied  the  remainder.  Hurd's  regi 
ment  at  this  time  was  numbered  twelve,  and  was  so  designated  on  the 
official  records  afterwards,  while  it  was  under  the  command  of  Morey 

1The  conquest  of  Canada  was  actually  completed  in  1760,  but  the  formal  acqui 
sition  of  this  territory  by  England  was  determined  by  the  treaty  of  Paris  in  1763. 


and  Johnston.  (8  Province  and  State  Papers,  834,  972;  16  State 
Papers,  924.) 

In  1774  another  regiment  was  constituted  of  the  towns  of  Hanover, 
Lebanon,  Lyme,  Orford,  Cornish,  and  Plainfield,  with  Samuel  Gil 
bert  of  Lyme  as  colonel.  (Chase's  Hanover,  p.  327.)  Probably 
Lyme  was  not  retained  in  this  regiment,  as  at  later  dates  it  appears  as 
a  town  in  Morey's  regiment.  (14  State  Papers,  556.)  Colonel  Gil 
bert  having  died,  Lt.-Col.  Jonathan  Chase  was  made  colonel  by  act  of 
the  assembly  August  30,  1775.  (Chase's  Hanover,  329.)  The  north 
regiment  is  sometimes  mentioned  by  Colonel  Potter  as  the  Sixteenth, 
but  this  is  not  in  accord  with  the  references  to  the  regiment  made  in 
the  acts  and  votes  in  the  assembly  and  council  in  the  war  period,  and 
down  to  the  last  of  the  year  1784-1 

There  is  evidence  that  a  company  was  organized  in  the  Coos  coun 
try  before  the  county  of  Grafton  was  created  or  a  regiment  estab 
lished,  and  that  the  settlers  thus  became  an  organic  part  of  the  prov 
ince  militia  as  early  as  1768.  (Letter,  Gov.  John  Wentworth  to 
Timothy  Bedel,  August  5,  1768,  manuscript  among  the  Bedel  Papers, 
in  custody  of  New  Hampshire  Historical  Society.) 

With  the  development  of  the  revolutionary  movement  the  status 
and  disposition  of  the  militia  became  an  important  consideration. 
The  royal  governor,  in  the  disposal  of  the  civic  offices  of  the  county, 
may  not  have  entertained  the  idea  of  placing  the  officers  of  the  two 
regiments  under  a  sense  of  obligation  to  himself  as  representative  of 
the  crown,  but  it  happened  that  no  one  was  commissioned  as  a  field 
officer  who  did  not  hold  one  or  more  civil  offices  of  honor  and  emolu 
ment  for  the  county.  Besides  the  bestowal  of  the  five  important 
positions  to  which  Colonel  Hurd  had  been  assigned,  the  governor 
made  Colonel  Fenton  judge  of  probate  and  clerk  of  courts,  Major 
Sewall  register  of  probate,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Porter  and  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Hobart  judges  of  the  court  of  common  pleas,  and  Major  Simp 
son  sheriff.  When,  however,  the  governor  was  compelled  to  abandon 
the  province  in  1775,  Colonel  Fenton  alone  of  all  those  recipients  of 
executive  favor  cast  his  fortunes  with  his  chief  and  attempted  to  de 
part  with  him.  (Biography,  by  Charles  R.  Corning,  G.  &  C.  Bar 
Asso.  Proceedings,  vol.  i,  p.  151;  Proceedings  N.  H.  Society  of 
Colonial  Wars,  1901.)  He  was,  however,  intercepted  by  the  state 
authorities  and  detained  for  a  considerable  period  as  a  state  prisoner. 
Colonel  Porter  was  of  the  same  mind  but  more  politic  as  to  taking  a 

1  Council  Records,  Mss.  VIII,  112;  House  Journal,  Mss.  XI,  391,  XII,  419;  8 
Prov.  and  State  Papers,  834,  972;  Potter,  Mil.  Hist.  N.  H.,  2  Adjt.-Gen's.  Report, 
1866,  284;  XIV  State  Papers,  558. 


i6 

stand  openly  against  the  revolt  of  the  province.  Major  Simpson  and 
Major  Sewall  took  a  conservative  course  and  were  non-committal. 
Colonel  Hurd  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Hobart  espoused  the  cause  of 
independence  promptly,  openly,  and  effectively.  Hobart  was  even 
tually  made  colonel  of  Fenton's  regiment,  and  Hurd  became  councilor 
and  member  of  the  revolutionary  committee  of  safety  for  Grafton 
county. 

The  imperative  necessity  of  a  re-organization  of  the  militia  was 
manifest  as  soon  as  all  reasonable  hope  of  obtaining  a  redress  of 
grievances  without  a  final  appeal  to  the  arbitrament  of  war  had  van 
ished.  Among  the  field  officers,  all  having  been  appointed  by  the 
royal  governor,  a  certain  element,  as  might  have  been  expected,  re 
mained  in  sympathy  with  the  mother  country,  lukewarm  in  the  cause 
of  independence,  or  in  doubt  as  to  the  expediency  of  the  movement. 
The  last  recorded  session  of  the  old  assembly  is  on  July  18,  the  gover 
nor  having  retired  to  the  fort  July  u.  The  Fourth  Provincial  (Re 
volutionary)  Congress  had,  after  the  final  dissolution  of  the  last  (royal) 
province  assembly,  an  open  field  as  the  only  representative  body  ex 
ercising  legislative  powers  in  the  province.  Colonel  Hurd  was  a  mem 
ber  in  attendance  at  the  July  session.  This  body,  by  vote  on  the  24th 
of  August,  1775,  the  very  day  on  which  Governor  Wentworth  sailed 
for  Boston  on  the  Scarborough,  re-organized  the  regiments  with  strict 
reference  to  the  exigency  by  which  the  commonwealth  was  con 
fronted.  Timothy  Bedel  and  Israel  Morey,  as  well  as  Colonel  Hurd, 
were  influential  Grafton  county  members  of  this  congress.  Morey 
was  of  Orford,  and  was  made  colonel  of  Kurd's  regiment,  with  Charles 
Johnston  of  Haverhill  as  lieutenant-colonel,  Jonathan  Child  of  Lyme  as 
first  major,  and  Jonathan  Hale  of  Haverhill  as  second  major.  (7  Pro 
vince  Papers,  578.)  Colonel  Morey  was  an  energetic  officer  and  a 
conspicuous  citizen  during  the  entire  war  period.  Besides  the  organi 
zation  and  command  of  his  regiment,  constant  attention  to  the  defense 
of  the  frontier  which  it  occupied,  and  compliance  with  calls  upon  his 
territory  for  oft-repeated  levies  of  men  and  material  for  operations 
abroad,  he  acted  as  one  of  the  chief  executives  of  the  commissary  de 
partment  in  the  Connecticut  valley.  The  records  are  fragmentary  and 
incomplete,  but  the  following  abstract  will  indicate  something  of  the 
importance  of  this  regiment  in  contributions  for  various  lines  of  ser 
vice  in  the  course  of  the  long  conflict : 

In  1776  the  assembly  voted  to  raise  2,000  men  for  "  the  service,"  of 
which  the  Sixteenth  (Twelfth)  regiment,  Col.  Israel  Morey  of  Orford, 
was  to  furnish  forty-three.  (14  State  Papers,  256.) 


Men  raised  to  fill  up  the  three  continental  regiments,  March,  1777 
(total  2,063). 

Col.  Israel  Morey's  regiment,  forty-three.     (14  State  Papers,  559.) 
Apportionment  of  men  to  be  raised  for  service  in  Rhode  Island, 
1779  (total  280). 

Colonel  Morey's  regiment,  six.      (15  State  Papers,   655.) 
June  1 6,  1780,  the  legislature  passed  an  act  ordering  600  men  to  be 
raised  to  recruit  the  three  regiments  in  the  continental  army  from  this 
state ;  of  these 

Colonel  Morey's  regiment,  sixteen.      (16  State  Papers,  58.) 
In  the  latter  part  of  June,  1780,  the  legislature   voted   to  raise  945 
men  for  a  term  of  three  months,  to  reinforce  the  army  at  West  Point ; 
of  these 

Colonel  Morey's  regiment,   two  officers,    twenty-six  privates.     (16 
State  Papers,  104.) 

June  22,  1780,  the  house  of  representatives  voted  to  raise  120  men 
to  be  sent  to  the  ''western  frontiers  of  this  state"  to  reinforce  Maj. 
Benjamin  Whitcomb.  These  men  were  to  serve  six  months  ;  of  these 
Colonel  Morey's  regiment,  five.  (16  State  Papers,  166.) 
"In  October,  1780,  a  great  alarm  was  occasioned  by  the  destruc 
tion  of  Royalton,  Vt.,  and  from  a  report  that  4,000  British  troops  had 
crossed  Lake  Champlain  with  the  intention  of  proceeding  to  Con 
necticut  River.  At  this  time  Mr.  [Absalom]  Peters  marched  at  the 
head  of  six  companies  from  the  northern  part  of  New  Hampshire  to 
Newbury,  Vt.,  the  place  designated  for  their  rendezvous,  and  on  his 
arrival  was  appointed  aid  to  Major-General  Bayley,  which  office  he  sus 
tained  until  the  close  of  the  war."  (  3  Coll.  N.  H.  Hist.  Society,  245.) 
April  5,  1781,  the  house  of  representatives  voted  to  raise  two  com 
panies,  to  consist  of  sixty-five  men  each,  to  rendezvous  at  Haverhill  by 
theistof  June,  and  to  be  under  the  command  of  Lieut. -Col.  Charles 
Johnston.  It  was  subsequently  voted  not  to  send  them  so  early;  but 
on  the  3oth  of  June  a  vote  passed  requiring  them  to  be  raised  and  for 
warded  immediately.  The  men  were  to  be  raised  from  the  militia 
regiments  commanded  by  Colonels  Ellis  of  Keene,  Chase  of  Cornish, 
Morey  of  Orford,  Webster  of  Plymouth,  and  "  the  regiment  of  the  late 
Colonel  Bellows  "  of  Walpole,  and  \vere  to  serve  six  months.  (16 
State  Papers,  249.) 

From  the  Vermont  records  it  appears  that,  in  a  call  for  1,500  men 
for  the  defense  of  the  northern  frontier  against  the  common  enemy  in 
1781,  310  men  were  apportioned  to  the  regiments  on  the  east  side  of 
the  river,  two  officers  and  forty -three  non-commissioned  officers  and 


i8 

privates  being  required  from  Morey's  regiment.  (2  Records  of  Gov 
ernor  and  Council  of  Vt.,  p.  87.) 

Other  calls  of  a  like  character,  of  which  no  record  has  been  preserved, 
would  undoubtedly  enlarge  the  account  to  the  credit  of  Morey's  regi 
ment  as  an  important  factor  in  the  great  struggle.  (See  also  8  State 
Papers,  passim.} 

The  local  military  government  of  the  towns  in  the  lower  part  of 
Moray's  regiment  all  through  the  war  period,  which  was  also  the 
period  of  their  disaffection  against  the  Exeter  government,  was  very 
largely  managed  through  the  instrumentality  of  delegate  conventions 
from  the  towns  on  both  sides  of  the  river.  The  details  of  the  pro 
ceedings  of  these  assemblies  must  be  sought  in  the  State  Papers  and 
historical  collections  of  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont. 

The  supreme  effort  on  the  part  of  New  Hampshire  in  behalf  of  the 
cause  of  independence  was  made  in  1777.  Morey's  regiment,  on 
account  of  its  location,  was  naturally  subject  to  urgent  calls  for  the 
reinforcement  of  the  army  by  which  General  Burgoyne's  forces  were 
invested.  David  Hobart  of  Plymouth,  colonel  of  the  Eleventh  regi 
ment  of  militia,  commanded  one  of  the  provisional  regiments  of 
Stark's  brigade  at  Bennington.  His  record  in  that  battle  was  highly 
commended  by  General  Stark.  His  fame  in  later  years,  however,  was 
obscured  by  the  fact  that  Stark's  despatches  made  the  name  appear  to 
be  "  Hubbard."  Belknap,  Barstow,  and  other  historians  have  fol 
lowed  the  error.  Whiton  does  not  mention  Hobart  by  either  name. 
He  died  soon  after  the  war  in  Haverhill,  Mass.,  to  which  place  he  had 
removed.  (Potter,  Military  Hist,  of  N.  H.,  p.  320;  Farmer's  Bel- 
knap,  p.  374;  Barstow's  N.  H.,  p.  257.) 

The  roll  of  the  men  of  Stark's  brigade,  compiled  by  Col.  George 
C.  Gilmore,  1891,  in  which  the  residence  of  each  individual  is  given 
by  towns,  credits  Morey's  regiment  with  a  contribution  of  50  men. 
Nearly  or  quite  all  of  this  contingent  served  in  the  regiment  com 
manded  by  Colonel  Hobart.  Davenport  Phelps  of  Lyme  was  quarter 
master  on  the  regimental  staff.  Charles  Johnston  of  Haverhill  was 
Hobart's  lieutenant-colonel,  and  Johnston's  dramatic  valor  is  still  a 
conspicuous  feature  of  the  story  of  the  battle.  (15  State  Papers, 
142  ;  15  Granite  Monthly,  p.  85,  biography  of  Charles  Johnston  by  J. 
Q.  Bittinger.) 

Colonel  Hurd  writes  from  Haverhill,  under  date  of  September  30, 
1777,  to  the  committee  of  safety  as  follows  : 

"  I  congratulate  with  you  on  the  success  of  our  army  to  the  North 
ward  &  the  glorious  prospect  there  now  appears  of  destroying  the 


whole  Force  of  our  Enemys  both  North  &  South,  &  compleating  the 
business  of  this,  campaign  ;  if  the  people  do  but  continue  their  spirit  & 
exertions.  '  Tis  rather  unluckey  tho1  that  General  Stark's  Brigade 
is  so  soon  broke  up,  wch  has  struck  a  panic  into  the  Enemy  they 
will  never  recover ; — more  of  our  men  this  way  however  are  turning 
out  at  the  earnest  request  of  General  Bayley  from  Castleton,  &  by 
orders  of  Col°  Morey,  who  I  hear  was  going  off  himself.  I  am  ex 
tremely  chagrin'd  that  my  infirm  Limbs  will  not  permit  me  to  share 
the  Toils  &  dangers  of  the  field  with  my  countrymen.  I  have  spared 
two  of  my  family  &  and  sent  them  off  with  horses  and  provisions  for 
near  a  month; — one  of  them,  my  son  Jacob,  tho1  hardly  of  age  suffi 
cient,  but  a  well  grown  lad  of  good  heart  &  disposition,  to  supply  his 
father's  place."  (8  State  Papers,  700.) 

No  account  is  here  taken  of  the  so-called  Ticonderoga  alarms  in 
the  early  part  of  1777,  to  which  due  response  was  undoubtedly  made 
by  the  men  of  Morey's  regiment  for  the  brief  terms  which  character 
ized  those  somewhat  desultory  movements. 

Gen.  Jacob  Bayley  forwarded  the  following  letter  to  Colonel  Morey, 
dated  September  22,  1777  : 

"  Sr — Success  attend  us  as  yet,  in  part  we  have  cut  of  their  Com 
munication — we  have  taken  Tic.  side  except  the  old  fort  hope  soon  to 
have  all  Lake  George — Taken  about  500  Prisoners  we  want  help 
much  our  Divition  is  only  1500  men  General  Lincoln's  gone  to  Join 
General  Gates  you  and  all  the  melitia  Eastward  must  turn  out  with 
Horses  and  one  months  Provitions  which  will  I  hope  put  an  end  to 
the  dispute  this  way.  Genrl  Arnold  fought  a  battle  two  day  ago  on 
the  Left  of  Genrl  Gates  great  numbers  fell  on  both  sides  he  took  250 
Prisoners  and  three  field  peaces  and  the  field — Pray  turn  out — ." 
(17  State  Papers,  136.) 

Writing  from  Cornish,  October  i,  1777,  Colonel  Morey  makes  the 
following  report  to  Gen.  Jonathan  Chase  : 

"  Sir — This  is  to  inform  you  that  I  have  collected  what  men  I  could 
out  of  my  Regiment  (in  so  short  a  time)  I  marched  them  as  far  as 
this  place  hoping  to  find  you  at  home — but  as  you  was  gone  forward 
&  as  I  have  recd  new  orders  from  the  Court  of  this  state  thro1  the 
Hands  of  Brigadeer  Gen1  Whipple  to  exert  myself  to  the  utmost  & 
send  all  the  Militia  that  can  possibly  turn  out,  I  concluded  to  turn 
back  &  raise  another  Company  &  send  forward  as  soon  as  possible — 
Cap*  Chandler  commands  the  men  which  I  have  sent  forward — I  have 
directed  him  to  put  himself  under  your  Command — my  Adjutant 
Simeon  Goodwin  is  gone  forward  &  will  serve  if  needed  &  he  is  a 


20 

Man  that  may  be  relied  on  for  his  punctuality  &  fidelity — Gen1  Bay- 
ley  will  show  you  what  further  I  have  wrote  respecting  the  men  and 
soforth — I  send  my  son  Israel  with  the  Men  he  is  to  wait  on  Cap1  Hay- 
ward  when  he  comes — ." 

By  reference  to  the  rolls  in  15  State  Papers,  379,  383,  385,  we  are 
able  to  identify  the  volunteers  from  Morey's  regiment,  to  whom  the 
colonel  refers. 

The  officers  of  Morey's  regiment  with  this  battalion  at  the  outset 
were  Major  Jonathan  Child  of  Lyme,  Adjutant  Simeon  Goodwin  of 
Haverhill,  Chaplain  Obediah  Noble,  formerly  of  Orange,  Capt.  Jona 
than  Chandler  of  Piermont,  Lieut.  Jonathan  Derby  of  Orford,  Ensign 
James  English  of  Lyme,  Capt.  Joshua  Hayward  (or  Howard)  of 
Haverhill,  and  Lieut.  Thomas  Hibbard  of  Haverhill.  Major  Child  and 
Surgeon  Frederick  Obrey  appear  to  have  served  in  General  Lincoln's 
command.  (15  State  Papers,  366.) 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Webster  of  Hobart's  Plymouth  regiment  accom 
panied  this  contigent  with  a  company  of  24  officers  and  men  from  that 
regiment  under  Capt.  John  Willoughby.  (15  State  Papers,  381,  385.) 

There  were  30  men  in  Captain  Chandler's  company,  and  36  in  that 
of  Captain  Howard,  besides  the  three  officers  of  the  field  and  staff. 
The  detachment  served  under  Colonel  Chase.  The  rolls  of  Chase's 
men  give  the  number  in  this  particular  service  as  142.  Chandler's 
contingent  and  Willoughby's  company  gave  Colonel  Chase  a  regiment 
of  235  men. 

The  following  certificate  of  service  relative  to  the  regiment  is  pre 
served  (17  State  Papers,  150)  : 

"  H.  Q.  Saratoga,  Octr  i8th  1777— 

"These  may  Certify  that  Col°  Chase  with  a  Regiment  of  Volunteers 
have  faithfully  serv'd  until  this  date  in  the  Northern  Army,  and  are 
now  Discharged  with  Honor. — 

"  By  order  of  General  Gates 

'  *  Jacob  Bayley  Brigr  Gen1 " 

Another  company  of  38  officers  and  men  were  engaged  in  this 
campaign  under  Capt.  Joseph  Hutchins  of  Haverhill.  General  Bay- 
ley  certifies  that  they  were  in  his  brigade.  Capt.  John  Sloan's  com 
pany,  raised  in  Lyme,  Orford,  Piermont,  and  the  vicinity  in  Cob's,  27 
officers  and  men,  were  also  in  the  same  service.  (15  State  Papers, 
277-281.) 

The  roll  of  officers  for  Hutchins's  company  is  given  in  Potter's  Mili 
tary  History,  Part  2,  p.  386.  The  officers  named  by  Colonel  Potter 
are,— 

Joseph  Hutchins,  captain.  Joseph  Howe,  second  lieutenant. 

Timothy  Bedel,  first  lieutenant.    Ezekiel  Ladd,  ensign. 


21 

The  period  of  service  was  from  August  18  to  October  5.  This 
roll  should  be  read  in  connection  with  that  of  the  rank  and  file 
printed  in  15  State  Papers,  279. 

It  makes  the  full  number  of  the  company  38,  and  by  that  much  in 
creases  the  aggregate  of  men  furnished  from  Morey's  regiment  for  the 
Saratoga  campaign. 

In  July,  1777,  it  appears  by  the  record  that  50  men  were  recruited 
from  this  regiment  for  the  continental  regiments,  and  the  names,  resi 
dences,  and  regiment  to  which  each  man  was  assigned  are  given  in 
detail.  (15  State  Papers,  424,  425.) 

These  enlistments  were  in  ample  time  for  the  Saratoga  campaign, 
in  which  all  the  New  Hampshire  continental  regiments  which  are 
referred  to  participated.  The  total  strength  of  Morey's  regiment  being 
347,  as  already  officially  stated,  it  is  now  shown  by  actual  reference 
to  the  rolls  and  names  of  the  men  that  nearly  two  thirds  of  the  regi 
ment  (234)  volunteered  for  the  Bennington  and  Saratoga  campaigns, 
and  that  was  equivalent  to  two  thirds  of  the  entire  body  of  men  of 
military  age  within  the  territorial  limits  of  the  regiment. 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  Lieut. -Col.  David  Webster,  reproduced  in 
Hon.  Alfred  Russell's  biography  of  that  officer  in  the  Granite  Monthly, 
vol.  30,  p.  93,  General  Bayley  formally  thanks  Colonel  Webster  for 
the  services  of  himself  and  his  regiment. 

"HEADQUARTERS,   SARATOGA, 

"Oct.  18,  1777. 

"These  may  certify  that  Col.  Webster,  with  a  regiment  of  N.  H. 
Volunteers,  have  faithfully  served  in  the  Northern  Army  until  this 
date,  and  are  discharged  with  honor. 

"  By  Gen.  Gate's  order, 

"JACOB  BAYLEY,  Brig.  Gen"1 1" 

The  letter  does  not  specify  the  regiment  to  which  reference  is  made, 
whether  to  the  regiment  with  which  Colonel  Webster  served  or  a  regi 
ment  which  he  commanded.  It  could  not  have  been  the  Eleventh,  or 
Plymouth  regiment  of  militia,  for  the  same  reason  that  two  companies 
volunteering  out  of  Morey's  regiment  were  not  Morey's  regiment,  and 
142  volunteers  from  Chase's  were  not  Chase's  regiment. 

It  is  perhaps  a  fair  inference  from  the  roll  given  in  15  State  Papers, 
385,  that  Webster  served  as  lieutenant-colonel  in  the  provisional  reg 
iment  of  which  Jonathan  Chase  was  colonel. 

Colonel  Bedel's  first  regiment,  1775,  serving  in  Canada,  and  the  sec 
ond,  1776,  also  operating  in  the  same  region,  both  contained  compa 
nies  raised  within  the  area  of  Morey's  regiment.  Bedel's  third,  1777, 
and  his  fourth,  1778,  also  contained  large  enlistments  from  Morey's 


22 

militia,  although  Bedel's  later  regiments,  with  the  exception  of  the 
contingent  of  100  men  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Wheelock  called  to 
Albany,  N.  Y.,  in  1778,  were  not  actually  engaged  in  field  service 
outside  of  New  Hampshire  or  Vermont.  Add  to  this  exhibit  the  re 
cruitments  from  the  northern  militia  for  many  companies  of  rangers, 
of  which  the  official  rolls  afford  evidence,  and  it  may  fairly  be  as 
sumed  that  the  number  of  men  in  active  service  assignable  to  Morey's 
regiment  very  largely  exceeds  the  numerical  strength  of  the  regiment, 
notwithstanding  the  somewhat  paradoxical  nature  of  the  claim. 

The  militia  was  governed  by  the  existing  province  laws,  modified  in 
some  particulars  by  occasional  legislation,  until  September,  1776,  when 
a  new  system  was  established  by  act  of  the  two  houses  of  the  legisla 
ture.  This  law  created  two  classes  in  the  militia,  the  training  band 
and  the  alarm  list.  All  the  able-bodied  males  in  the  state,  with  cus 
tomary  exemptions,  between  sixteen  and  fifty  years  of  age,  were  in 
cluded  in  the  train  band,  and  an  alarm  list  in  which  the  liability  to 
military  duty  in  emergencies  was  extended  to  sixty -five  years.1  The 
companies,  including  those  upon  the  alarm  list,  a  field  officer  presiding, 
were  to  choose  a  captain,  two  lieutenants,  and  an  ensign  to  each. 
The  non-commissioned  officers  were  chosen  by  the  companies. 

Each  officer  and  private  soldier  was  "  to  equip  himself  and  be  con 
stantly  provided  with  a  good  firearm,  good  ramrod,  a  worm,  priming 
wire  and  brush,  and  a  bayonet  fitted  to  his  gun,  a  scabbard  and  belt 
therefor,  and  a  cutting  sword  or  a  tomahawk,  or  hatchet,  a  pouch  con 
taining  a  cartridge-box  that  will  hold  fifteen  rounds  of  cartridges  at 
least,  a  hundred  buckshot,  a  jackknife  and  tow  for  wadding,  six  flints, 
one  pound  of  powder,  forty  leaden  balls,  fitted  to  his  gun,  a  knapsack 
and  blanket,  a  canteen  or  wooden  bottle,  sufficient  to  hold  one  quart." 
Each  town  was  to  provide  and  deposit  in  some  safe  place,  for  use  in 
case  of  an  alarm,  a  specified  number  of  spades,  axes,  and  picks,  and  to 
provide  arms  and  equipments  for  those  unable  to  provide  for  them 
selves  ;  and  parents,  masters,  and  guardians  were  to  provide  for  those 
under  their  care.  Each  company  was  to  muster  eight  times  a  year, 
including  the  regimental  musters.  (Potter's  Mil.  Hist.  N.  H.,  vol.  2, 
Adjt. -Gen's  Report,  1866,  p.  281.) 

The  law  imposed  very  serious  burdens  upon  the  people,  not  only  in 
personal  services  but  in  the  expense  of  equipment.  A  census  taken  in 

i  A  Conway  return  of  June  10,  1775,  in  which  all  the  men  able  to  bear  arms  from 
sixteen  years  upward  are  enumerated,  shows  61  men,  with  10  on  the  alarm  list,  a  total 
of  71.  Of  this  61,  moreover,  n  were  reported  as  already  gone  to  the  war.  This  may 
indicate  approximately  the  respective  proportions  of  men  in  the  two  classes  in  other 
northern  towns.  14  State  Papers,  246. 


the  fall  of  1775  (7  Prov.  Papers,  724-784)  indicates  approximately 
the  amount  of  arms  and  military  supplies  in  the  hands  of  the  people. 
The  following  table  is  an  abstract  of  their  returns,  limited  to  the  towns 
in  Morey's  regiment : 


Names  of  Towns. 

Fire 
arms  fit 
for  use. 

Guns 
wanted. 

Powder 
inhabi 
tants 
have. 

Powder 
town 
has. 

Lead 
and 
bullets, 
etc. 

Pistols. 

Orford.          

IT. 

20 

30  Ibs. 

Lyme                                .  . 

T.O 

71 

38 

Bath 

38 

24 

8  Ibs. 

l  c 

Cockburne  (Columbia)  .  . 
Colebrook  

3 
i 

'j 

1 

Haverhill  

6 

CO 

Piermont           .                .  . 

i 

->I 

16 

Stratford 

7 

7 

12 

Apthorp    (Littleton    and 
Dalton)  

Gunthwaite  (Lisbon)  .... 
Northumberland  
Lancaster  

7 
8 

6 

15 

7 

14 
10 
I  I 

Lyman  

Landaff  . 

3  Ibs 

Morristown      (Franconia 
and  Lincoln)  . 

•j 

^ 

lead,  2 
dozen 
flints. 
10  Ibs. 
lead,  20 

flints. 

In  a  short  time  after  Colonel  Morey  assumed  command  of  the 
"  North  Regiment"  it  furnished  a  large  contingent  of  men  and  mili 
tary  equipment  for  Bedel's  regiment  of  Rangers  which  was  ordered  to 
Canada  early  in  the  winter  of  177 $-76  to  reinforce  Montgomery's 
army.  In  the  absence  of  Colonel  Bedel  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Wait 
a  part  of  this  Ranger  regiment  was  surrendered  at  a  fort  called 
"Cedars,"  under  circumstances  most  discreditable  to  Major  Butter- 
field  who  was  in  command.  (Potter's  Mil.  Hist.,  Adjt. -Gen's  Report, 
1866,  vol.  2,  p.  287.)  This  necessarily  resulted  in  a  serious  loss  of 
equipment  which  had  been  drawn  from  the  western  New  Hampshire 
militia  contributing  the  men  and  material  for  Bedel's  regiment.  The 
burden  of  replacing  the  loss  in  arms  and  accoutrements  from  this  dis 
graceful  affair  was  a  serious  matter  for  the  farmer  soldiers  of  the  fron 
tier.1 

^Memorial  of  Charles  Johnston,  Joseph  Hutchins,  Simeon  Goodwin,  and  Joshua 
Howard,  12  State  Papers,  187.  American  Archives,  series  5,  vol.  i,  pp.  398,  399 
memorial  of  the  officers  of  Bedel's  regiment  to  Major-General  Gates,  dated  at  Ticon- 
deroga,  July  17,  1776. 


24 

The  numerical  strength  of  Morey's  regiment  can  be  ascertained  with 
reasonable  accuracy.  The  record,  printed  in  14  State  Papers,  556, 
which  gives  the  statistics  of  enrolment  for  an  apportionment  of  recruits 
called  for  to  fill  the  three  continental  regiments  in  1777,  is  apparently 
complete  except  as  to  Colonel  Morey's  regiment.  The  total  strength  of 
the  regiment  is  given  as  347.  This  is  manifestly  based  on  the  census 
returns  of  the  fall  of  1775.  (7  Prov.  Papers,  724.)  The  part  which 
remains  in  the  original  manuscript  is  indicated  by  italics.  The  part 
in  Roman  is  reconstructed  from  the  census  returns  above  mentioned. 
The  result  is  so  nearly  that  given  in  the  record  summary  that  we  have 
a  right  to  assume  our  method  of  reconstruction  of  the  statistics  of  en 
rolment  for  the  regiment  to  be  sufficiently  accurate. 

Orford 47 

Lyme 69 

Bath 35 

Cockburne 6 

Colebrook I 

Haverhill 86 

Piermont 43 

Stratford 16 

Apthorp  (estimated)1 5 

Gunthwaite 1 1 

Northumberland  (14  State  Papers,  559,  7) 20 

Lancaster (" " " ". .  .6) 17 

Lyman (" " " " . . .  o) . .  (estimated) 9 

Landaff 9 

Morristown 6 

Reconstructed  summary 378 

Record  (official) 347 

Variance 31 

The  difference  in  the  record  statement  (14  State  Papers,  559)  of 
the  number  of  men  in  Lancaster,  Northumberland,  and  Lyman,  and 
the  statistics  as  corrected  by  the  census  returns  (7  State  Papers,  724 
to  781)  with  the  uncertainty  taken  into  account  as  to  Lyman  and 
Apthorp,  from  which  necessarily  only  estimates  are  given,  is  not  very 
important,  and,  due  allowance  being  made  according  to  the  apparent 
requirements  of  the  case,  no  serious  historical  error  will  be  possible. 

It  may,  therefore,  be  assumed,  for  the  purposes  of  this  narrative, 
that  we  have  the  territorial  extent  of  the  regiment  outlined,  and  its 
numerical  strength  also,  as  nearly  as  it  is  practicable  to  state  it  from 
the  records,  read  in  connection  with  the  census  of  1775. 

1  See  7  Province  Papers  672,  for  authority  for  estimates. 


25 

We  are  also  enabled  to  locate  most  of  the  companies  which  consti 
tuted  the  regiment,  and  to  give  the  roster  of  field  and  company  officers 
with  the  exception  of  one  or  two  companies.  This  statement  refers 
to  the  organization  as  it  stood  in  September,  1775. 

A  LIST  OF  THE  I2TH  REGIMENT  OF  FOOT, 
COLONY  OF  NEW  HAMPSHIRE, 

SEPT.  5TH,  1775. 1 
Commissioned  5th  Sept.,  1775. 

Israel  Morey,  Esq.,  Colonel.  Charles  Johns  [t]  on,  Esq.  Lt.Col. 

Jonathan  Child,  Esq.,  Major.  Jonathan  Hale,  Esq.,  2d  Maj. 

Haverhill  First  Company. 

Joshua  Hayward,  Capt.  Samuel  Ladd,  Lt. 

Ebenezer  Rice,  2d  Lt.  John  Ladd,  Ensign. 

Orford  2nd  Company. 

Daniel  Tillotson,  Capt.  Peletiah  Bliss,  Lieut. 

Eldad  Post,  2d  Lt.  Jonathan  Derby,  Ensign. 

Lyme  3rd  Company. 

John  Sloan,  Capt.  Benjamin  Grant,  Jr.,  Lt. 

Jabez  Vaughn,  2d  Lt.  James  English,  Ensign. 

4th  Company 
(Name  of  town  and  roster  not  in  original.) 

Piermont  5th  Company. 

Jonathan  Chandler,  Capt.  John  Weed,  Lt. 

Azariah  Webb,  2d  Lt.  Burgess  Metcalf,  Ensign. 

Gunthwaite  6th  Company. 

Luther  Richardson,  Capt.  Jacob  Shuff,  Lieut. 

William  Martin,  2d  Lt.  Timothy  Bagley,  Ensign. 

Bath  7th  Company 

Samuel  Titus,  Capt.  Daniel  Bedel,  Lieut. 

Henry  Hancock,  2d  Lt.  Aaron  Bayley,  Ensign. 

Bath,  Commissioned  2Oth  June  1780 
Ebenezer  Sanborn,  Capt.  Thomas  McConnell 

Joshua  Sanders  2d  Lt.  Job  Moulton,  Ensign. 

1 1 6  State  Papers,  924. 


26 

It  is  apparent  from  the  statistical  view  that  there  would  be  serious 
practical  obstacles  in  the  way  of  an  organization  of  a  company  of 
militia  in  the  scattered  townships  to  the  north  of  Gunthwaite.  Nei 
ther  Lancaster  nor  Northumberland,  the  two  most  populous  settle 
ments,  had  enough  men  of  military  age  for  a  company  of  the  strength 
required  by  law.  It  is  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  people  so  much 
dispersed  could  effect  very  much  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  a  com 
pany  of  militia.  The  theory  that  they  did  not  so  unite  in  the  early 
years  of  the  Revolution  seems  to  be  sustained  by  the  fact  that  the 
Coos  forts  were  garrisoned  by  companies  or  squads  of  rangers  some 
times  recruited  from  the  northern  towns  within  a  wide  circuit,  and 
sometimes  sent  in  from  distant  places.  We  may  assume,  in  the 
absence  of  contemporary  records,  that  the  service  constantly  required 
in  guarding  and  scouting  this  frontier,  and  in  contributing  to  the 
requirements  of  a  more  general  service,  was  a  sufficient  test  of  the 
devotion  of  these  pioneers  to  the  cause  of  independence,  and  that 
their  duties  in  the  fields  and  in  the  forts  left  no  opportunity  or  occa 
sion  for  further  organization  into  a  company  or  companies  in  Morey's 
regiment  of  militia,  to  which  territorially  they  would  be  constituent. 
Conditions  did  not  change  materially  till  the  end  of  the  war. 

There  are  certain  facts  in  the  official  records,  pertinent  in  this  con 
nection,  which  have  not  been  overlooked.  It  appears  in  the  State 
Papers  as  early  as  January,  1776,  that  Edwards  Bucknam  of  Lancas 
ter,  in  a  vote  of  the  legislature  appointing  coroners  for  the  county  of 
Grafton,  is  accorded  the  title  of  captain.  This  may  indicate  that  he 
had  such  command  before  he  settled  at  that  point  or  afterwards.  No 
evidence  is  accessible  to  settle  the  question.  Furthermore,  in  1779  it 
appears  that  the  settlers  in  those  parts  chose  Nathan  Caswell  to  be 
captain  of  some  sort  of  local  military  organization.  Whether  it  was 
merely  a  temporary  measure  or  intended  as  an  extension  of  the  militia 
system  is  not  disclosed  by  the  record.  (8  State  Papers  21  ;  i*$id., 

474,  4755   IS  id.,  705.) 

The  history  of  Morey's  regiment  derives  interest  from  events  which 
had  a  peculiar  significance  in  the  politics  of  the  towns  embraced 
within  its  limits.  A  number  of  the  leading  men  in  these  settlements 
were  from  Connecticut,  and  their  ideas  of  government  were  naturally  in 
accordance  with  their  education  and  experience  in  the  commonwealth 
from  which  they  had  emigrated. 

Hanover,  with  its  college  and  faculty,  which  constituted  a  Connecti 
cut  colony  of  itself,  was  the  intellectual  centre  for  this  movement, 
which  took  substantial  form  early  in  1776.  The  form  of  government 


27 

adopted  for  the  time  being  by  the  Fifth  Provincial  Congress  was  not 
acceptable  to  the  majority  of  the  people  in  the  towns  now  constituting 
the  western  part  of  Grafton  county.  Colonel  Hurd  and  Lt.-Col.  Charles 
Johnston,  however,  were  not  partisans  of  the  views  which  generally 
prevailed  on  this  subject  in  their  vicinity.  Colonel  Morey  and  Colo 
nel  Bedel  were  conspicuous  among  the  opposers  of  the  party  in  power 
in  the  so-called  Exeter  government.  The  group  of  towns  which 
included  Gunthwaite  on  the  north  and  Lebanon  on  the  south,  in  Graf- 
ton  county,  organized  themselves  by  town  groups  and  local  commit 
tees  for  the  management  of  civil  and  military  concerns,  and  formally 
declined  to  recognize  the  new  state  government  of  New  Hampshire. 
It  will  not  be  found  useful  to  pursue  the  history  of  this  controversy  at 
length  in  this  connection.  It  may  be  remembered,  however,  that  the 
Independents  of  the  Connecticut  valley  manceuvered  with  skill  and 
persistence  to  accomplish  such  a  union  of  Vermont  towns  with  New 
Hampshire  as  promised  either  to  augment  the  influence  of  the  western 
part  of  the  state  and  to  diminish  in  a  corresponding  degree  the  politi 
cal  power  which  the  eastern  section  had  acquired,  or  to  sever  them 
selves  from  New  Hampshire  and  join  with  the  proposed  state  of  Ver 
mont  or  New  Connecticut  under  more  favorable  conditions  than  they 
could  expect  from  New  Hampshire.  At  two  periods  between  1776  and 
the  close  of  the  war,  that  is  to  say,  in  1778  and  1781— '82,  these  towns 
were  in  active  union  with  Vermont  as  far  as  the  formal  action  of  both 
parties  could  accomplish  such  a  result.1 

i  Briefly  stated,  the  contention  of  the  New  Hampshire  party  was  that  upon  the  dis 
solution  of  political  relations  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country,  and  more 
especially  in  respect  to  the  territory  in  controversy  between  New  York  and  New 
Hampshire,  the  towns,  being  the  political  units  and  the  original  sources  of  political 
authority,  were  invested  with  the  right  to  determine  for  themselves  the  question 
whether  to  accord  allegiance  to  the  one  or  the  other  of  the  disputing  states,  or  whether 
to  erect  themselves  into  a  state  independent  of  the  mandate  of  any  other  association 
of  towns  or  committees  formed  for  the  purposes  of  government.  They  urged  that 
inasmuch  as  the  New  Hampshire  constitution  of  1776  had  never  been  submitted  to 
the  people  or  to  the  towns  for  ratification,  and  had  been  accepted  by  a  part  of  the 
towns  only,  it  was  operative  only  upon  such  as  had  elected  to  ratify  its  provisions. 
The  protesting  towns  took  care  not  to  do  any  act  which  could  be  construed  as  a  rati 
fication  of  that  form  of  government  in  the  six  years  from  early  in  1776  to  1782. 
Their  argument  was  presented  in  the  controversial  and  official  literature  of  that  time 
with  great  skill  and  effectiveness.  They  succeeded  in  making  themselves  felt  as  a 
political  force  to  be  reckoned  with  by  three  established  states  and  the  continental 
congress,  as  well  as  the  prospective  commonwealth  of  Vermont. 

A  number  of  the  more  important  collections  of  documents  and  historical  treatises 
relating  to  this  subject  in  its  various  aspects  are  mentioned  in  the  preface  to  vol. 
26,  State  Papers,  p.  ix.  Several  valuable  contributions  to  the  history  of  the  same 
controversy  are  embodied  in  recent  biographies  of  historic  personages  of  that  time. 


28 

Colonel  Bedel  of  Haverhill  and  Colonel  Brewster  of  Hanover  were 
members  of  the  Vermont  Board  of  War  (2  Gov.  and  Council  Records, 
Vermont,  p.  89),  and  Colonel  Morey  recognized  the  civil  and  military 
authority  of  Vermont,  and  as  far  as  his  authority  and  influence  were 
effectual,  his  regiment  was  a  component  of  the  Vermont  militia.  Col 
onel  Bedel's  regiment,  which  had  been  organized  under  continental 
authority,  was  discontinued  by  vote  of  congress  November  27,  1778. 
There  is  evidence  that  Colonel  Bedel's  connection  with  the  Vermont 
controversy  was  a  moving  cause  in  this  result.  (See  letters  of  Lieut  - 
Col.  John  Wheelock  and  General  Washington  on  this  subject,  both  of 
date  November  20,  1778,  and  the  comments  of  the  historian  of  Hano 
ver,  Chase's  Hist,  of  Hanover,  p.  395.)  He  represented  the  adjoining 
towns  of  Bath,  Lyman,  and  Morristown,  as  well  as  Haverhill  in  the 
Vermont  assembly  in  I78I.1 

Among  them  the  following  are  especially  noteworthy:  Elisha  Payne,  by  William  H. 
Cotton,  G.  &  C.  Bar  Ass'n,  vol.  i,  p.  497  ;  Samual  Livermore,  by  Charles  R.  Corning, 
Id.,  p.  365  ;  John  Sullivan,  by  Alonzo  H.  Quint,  address  at  the  dedication  of  the 
Sullivan  monument  at  Durham,  Proceedings  of  that  occasion,  published  by  the  state, 
p.  53;  Meshech  Weare,  a  Monograph,  by  Ezra  S.  Stearns,  pamphlet,  1894;  Id.,  vol. 
i,  Proceedings  of  the  New  Hampshire  Society  of  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution, 
p.  62  ;  Timothy  Bedel,  by  Edgar  Aldrich,  3  Proc.  N.  H.  Hist.  Soc.,  194-231. 

1  Colonel  Bedel  was  the  most  prominent  figure  from  the  region  of  western  Grafton 
in  the  continental  service.  He  was  principally  occupied  in  guarding  this  frontier  and 
cooperating  with  the  northern  army.  He  ceased  to  be  active  in  the  field,  after  con 
gress  in  November,  1778,  declined  to  continue  his  regiment  under  authority  of  the 
confederacy.  Col.  Moses  Hazen  was  in  a  measure  his  successor  with  a  regiment 
partaking  of  the  characteristics  of  the  ranger  service  and  with  continental  commis 
sion.  The  two  men  were  in  intimate  relations,  and  Colonel  Bedel  was  often  called 
upon,  after  his  formal  retirement,  to  aid  in  the  collection  and  forwarding  of  military 
stores  in  and  from  the  Coos  country.  (Bedel  Papers,  1 7  State  Papers,  passim.}  He  was 
not  in  favor  with  President  Weare,  the  executive  head  of  the  New  Hampshire  Revo 
lutionary  administration  (Letter  to  the  Delegates  in  Congress,  August  19,  1778,  and 
Vt.  State  Papers,  303),  and  in  Vermont  politics  he  was  a  strenuous  opponent  of  the 
party  represented  by  Governor  Chittenden  and  the  Aliens.  The  Haldimand  corres 
pondence  discloses  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  British-Canadian  diplomats  to 
enlist  Colonel  Bedel  in  cooperation  with  the  leaders  of  the  Bennington  party  in  the 
truce  that  was  proposed,  with  a  cessation  of  hostilities  against  Vermont.  (2  Coll.  Vt. 
Hist.  Soc.,  267,  273.)  In  view  of  the  attitude  of  his  political  associates  in  the  valley 
(Id.,  173)  the  eventual  conclusion  of  Colonel  Bedel  in  respect  to  such  a  convention 
between  Governor  Haldimand  and  Governor  Chittenden,  the  Aliens  and  Fay,  could 
be  foreseen  with  comparative  certainty. 

As  already  stated  in  the  text,  Colonel  Bedel  was  a  member  of  the  Vermont  Board 
of  War  in  i78i-'82.  From  the  standpoint  of  military  strategy  no  one  could  better 
appreciate  the  importance  of  the  fertile  and  populous  middle  and  upper  valley  of  the 
Connecticut  as  a  source  of  supply  for  the  continental  army  than  Colonel  Bedel.  He 
was  keenly  alive  to  the  necessity  of  keeping  a  strong  force  well  in  hand  in  that  region 
at  all  times ;  otherwise  invasion  would  be  invited,  and  its  disastrous  consequences 


29 

Colonel  Morey,  notwithstanding  his  open  and  persistent  support  of 
the  independent  movement,  continued  in  command  of  the  Twelfth 
regiment  until  hostilities  reached  the  verge  of  armed  collision  between 
New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  over  the  jurisdictional  issue.  He  was 
then,  on  the  nth  day  of  January,  1782,  summarily  removed  from  his 
command  by  the  New  Hampshire  legislature,  and  Lieut-Col.  Charles 
Johnston  was  made  colonel.  This,  the  last  experiment  in  any  form  of 
a  union  of  the  towns  on  the  east  side  of  the  river  with  Vermont, 
shortly  resulted  in  a  definite  and  unqualified  failure.  The  leaders  in 

in  the  depopulation  and  devastation  of  the  valley  inevitable.  Colonel  Bedel's  insist 
ence  upon  this  policy  undoubtedly  caused  the  discontinuance  of  his  command. 
(Memoir  of  Gen.  John  Stark  by  Caleb  Stark,  1877,  pp.  161, 166,  179.)  If  he  was  after 
wards  in  any  sense  a  party  to  the  negotiations  with  Governor  Haldimand  it  was 
without  doubt  moved  by  his  skepticism  as  to  the  efficacy  of  the  measure  sanctioned 
by  congress  for  the  defense  of  this  region  and  a  conviction  that  it  was  justifiable 
in  the  prospective  failure  of  other  protection  to  keep  the  enemy  beyond  our  own 
boundaries  by  recourse  to  the  methods  of  diplomacy.  With  the  failure  of  the 
Independents  of  the  valley  as  a  controlling  force,  either  in  the  politics  of  the  one  state 
or  the  other,  which  immediately  followed  the  settlement  of  the  boundary  at  the  west 
bank  of  the  river,  Colonel  Payne  of  Lebanon,  Judge  Woodward  of  Hanover,  Colonel 
Bedel,  Colonel  Morey,  and  their  associates  found  themselves  in  irretrievable  political 
defeat  and  squarely  face  to  face  with  the  inevitable.  With  a  few  exceptions  these 
men  loyally  adapted  themselves  to  the  settled  conditions.  Colonel  Potter,  in  a  note 
to  his  Military  History,  states  that  Bedel  was  a  major-general  of  the  second  division 
of  the  N.  H.  militia  after  the  war,  and  this  statement  is  adopted  by  Governor  Harri- 
man  and  other  writers.  (Adjt.-Gen's.  Report,  N.  H.,  vol.  2,  1866,  p.  242  ;  Granite 
Monthly,  vol.  3,  p.  513.)  Noting  the  absence  of  any  record  to  verify  the  assertion, 
taking  into  account  the  significant  fact  that  he  is  always  designated  as  "  colonel "  in 
the  Journals  of  the  House  in  i/84-'85,  while  those  known  to  have  been  commissioned 
as  generals  in  the  militia  are  invariably  given  the  title  in  the  same  record  whenever  a 
military  designation  is  attached,  and  considering  the  attitude  of  Colonel  Bedel  towards 
New  Hampshire  authority  in  the  later  years  of  the  war,  we  are  convinced  that  on  this 
point  Colonel  Potter  was  in  error.  There  was  but  one  major-general  in  command  of 
the  New  Hampshire  militia  at  any  one  time  until  about  the  date  of  the  decease 
of  Colonel  Bedel,  and  this  office  had  but  two  incumbents  until  1786,  first  General 
Folsom  and  later  General  Sullivan.  No  official  record  mentions  Colonel  Bedel  as  a 
brigadier  or  major-general.  In  the  two  years  intervening  between  the  failure  of  the 
union  with  Vermont  and  the  inauguration  of  a  state  government  under  the  constitu 
tion  of  1784  the  animosities  and  disappointments  engendered  by  the  struggle  between 
the  states  for  jurisdiction  over  the  territory  between  the  Green  Mountains  and  the 
Masonian  line  were  becoming  less  appreciable  before  other  interests  and  fresher 
issues.  Colonel  Payne  for  Lebanon  and  Colonel  Bedel  for  Haverhill  were  returned 
to  the  new  legislature,  and  were  at  once  accorded  recognition  commensurate  with  their 
character  and  ability.  (20  State  Papers,  passim.} 

Colonel  Bedel  died  in  1787  in  the  full  prospect  of  supplementing  a  useful  and  dis 
tinguished  military  career  by  one  as  honorable  on  the  civic  side  in  public  affairs.  (See 
also  Biography  of  Timothy  Bedel  by  Edgar  Aldrich,  3  Proceedings  N.  H.  Hist.  Soc., 
194-231.) 


30 

the  movement  generally  acquiesced  in  the  result,  but  Colonel  Morey 
could  not  bring  himself  to  such  compliance  with  the  logic  of  events. 
He  removed  at  once  and  permanently  into  Fairlee  on  the  Vermont 
side  of  the  river.  There  he  passed  the  remainder  of  his  days  and 
occupied  a  commanding  position  for  many  years  both  in  civil  and 
military  affairs. 

Colonel  Morey  was  undoubtedly  a  consistent  partisan.  In  antago 
nism  to  the  Exeter  party  in  New  Hampshire  his  attitude  was  unequiv 
ocal  and  his  conduct  straightforward.  In  the  politics  of  the  new 
state  of  Vermont  he  was  the  same  sturdy  and  persistent  opponent  of 
the  Bennington  party.  This  is  not  the  place  for  a  treatment  of  the 
negotiations  between  the  Vermont  leaders  and  the  British-Canadian 
authorities  in  the  latter  part  of  the  war  period.  (Haldimand  Papers, 
2  Hist.  Soc.  Coll.,  Vt.,  p.  55.)  As  indicating  the  position  of  some  of 
the  prominent  men  on  the  east  side  of  the  river,  then  claimed  as  a 
part  of  Vermont,  an  extract  from  a  report  of  one  of  the  commissioners, 
dated  September  30,  1781,  is  given: 

"  I  find  that  Congress  are  much  alarmed,  and  have  lately  at  great 
expense  employed  a  number  of  emissaries  in  Vermont  to  counteract 
underhand  whatever  is  doing  for  government.  The  principal  of  these 
are  General  Bailey,  Colonels  Chas.  Johnston,  Moron,  (Morey?), 
Brewster,  and  Major  Childs  on  Connecticut  River. 

"  This  junto,  of  which  General  Bailey  is  the  soul,  are  endeavoring 
to  set  the  populace  against  their  present  leaders  by  insinuating  to 
them  that  they  are  tories  and  intend  to  sell  Vermont,  £c."  (2  Hist. 
Soc.  Coll.,  Vt.,  178;  Amory,  Life  of  Sullivan,  305.) 

It  is  entirely  to  Colonel  Morey's  credit  that  he  was  the  subject  of 
such  criticism  as  this  at  the  hands  of  the  British-Canadian  officials. 
Indeed,  all  the  evidence  which  throws  light  on  the  character  of  the 
men  at  that  time  vindicates  the  loyalty  and  patriotism  of  Colonel 
Morey  in  the  cause  of  independence. 

The  circumstances  in  which  he  was  placed  and  the  attitude  he  as 
sumed  in  state  politics  put  him  at  a  serious  disadvantage  in  his  rela 
tions  with  the  dominant  party  in  New  Hampshire.  (Biography  of 
Israel  Morey  by  Frederic  P.  Wells,  in  preparation  for  the  Proceedings 
N.  H.  Hist.  Soc.) 

In  November,  1779,  Capt.  Joshua  Howard  of  Haverhill  was  pro 
moted  to  be  second  major  in  place  of  Major  Hale.1  In  the  records  this 
officer's  name  appears  occasionally  as  Hayward,  as  well  as  Howard. 
There  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  any  changes  were  made  in  the  field 
officers  of  the  regiment  after  the  advancement  of  Lieutenant-Colonel 
1  8  State  Papers,  834. 


Johnston  until  March  I,  1783,  when  the  house  of  representatives 
voted1  "  That  Capt.  Ebenezer  Green  [of  Lyme]  be  and  hereby  is  ap 
pointed  Lieut. -Col.  of  the  twelfth  regiment  of  militia  in  this  State.1' 

"That  Joshua  Howard,  Esqr  [of  Haverhill]  be  and  he  hereby  is 
appointed  first  Major  of  the  twelfth  regiment  of  Militia  in  this  State." 

"That  Capt.  Edwards  Bucknam  [of  Lancaster]  be  and  he  hereby 
is  appointed  a  Second  Major  of  the  twelfth  regiment  of  Militia  in  this 
State." 

The  council  records,  as  now  preserved,  do  not  indicate  a  con 
currence  in  these  votes  by  that  body.  Perhaps  there  was  an  error  of 
omission  at  this  point  on  the  part  of  the  recording  officer.  It  will  be 
noted  that  Capt.  Edwards  Bucknam  is  named  by  his  title.  This  may 
and  probably  does  indicate  that  a  company  or  companies  had  at  this 
date  been  organized  further  north  than  Gunthwaite  (Lisbon)2,  and 
that  Captain  Bucknam  had  been  in  command  of  one  of  them.  There 
is  significance  in  the  appointment  of  a  major  to  be  located  in  the  north 
part  of  the  territory  of  the  regiment.  It  presupposes  a  developement 
of  the  organization  either  already  in  progress  or  expected  in  that  direc 
tion. 

The  numbering  of  Morey's  regiment  in  the  Vermont  military  es 
tablishment  has  not  been  ascertained  with  absolute  certainty,  though 
it  was  assigned  as  a  regiment  east  of  the  river  to  the  brigade  of  Gen. 
Peter  Olcott.  Col.  Jonathan  Chasers  regiment,  according  to  the  his 
torian  of  Hanover,  became  the  third  in  the  Vermont  arrangement,  and 
Morey's  was  probably  the  first.  (2  Records  Gov.  and  Council,  Vt. 
88.) 

From  the  date  of  Colonel  Johnston's  advancement  to  the  colonelcy 
in  January,  1782,  he  continued  in  command,  and  his  regiment  existed 
territorially  as  it  had  been  during  the  war  until  the  state  government 
had  been  re-organized  under  the  constitution  of  1784.'  In  the  latter 
part  of  that  year  the  laws  governing  the  militia  were  remodeled  on  a 
peace  basis  and  a  resulting  rearrangment  of  regiments  and  reappoint- 
ment  or  reassignment  of  officers  ensued. 

Twenty-five  regiments  of  infantry  were  established  besides  several 
regiments  of  artillery  and  cavalry.  The  northern  regiment  became  the 
Twenty-Fifth  and  contained  the  towns  of  Lyinan,  Landaff,  Lincoln, 
Concord  (alias  Gunthwaite),  Cockburne  (Columbia),  Franconia, 
Littleton,  Dalton,  Lancaster,  Dartmouth  (Jefferson),  Northumber 
land,  Stratford,  Colebrook,  and  Percy  (Stark).  Joseph  Whipple  of 
Dartmouth  became  colonel,  and  held  the  command  until  the  reorgan- 

i  8  State  Papers,  972.  28  State  Papers,  21. 

8  Biography  by  J.  Q.  Bittinger,  15  Granite  Monthly.  85. 


32 

ization  in  1792.  (Biography,  by  Chester  B.  Jordan,  2  Proceedings 
N.  H.  Hist.  Soc.,  289.)  Bath  was  included  in  the  Haverhill  (Thir 
teenth)  regiment  in  1784,  with  Moses  Dow  as  colonel. 

This  was  an  interesting  and  progressive  period  for  the  militia. 
John  Sullivan  was  major-general  from  1784  to  1786,  and  subsequently 
commander-in-chief  for  three  years  by  virtue  of  his  office  as  president 
of  the  state.1  The  prestige  of  General  Sullivan's  name  and  his  active 
influence  promoted  a  healthful  esprit  de  corps  in  the  militia  of  the  new 
state.  With  a  general  revision  of  the  laws  and  reorganization  of  the 
militia  in  December,  1792,  the  towns  of  the  Twenty-Fifth  regiment, 
with  little  change  and  with  the  adoption  of  a  new  feature,  the  battalion 
arrangement,  became  the  Twenty-Fourth.  Concord  (Lisbon),  Ly- 
man,  Littleton,  Franconia,  Lincoln,  and  Dalton  were  the  first  battalion, 
and  Lancaster,  Northumberland,  Dartmouth,  Percy,  Coleburne  (Cole- 
brook),  Cockburne  (Columbia),  Stewartstown,  and  Stratford  con 
stituting  the  second.  In  1793  Concord  (Lisbon)  and  Lyman  were 
severed  from  the  Twenty-Fourth  and  joined  with  the  Thirteenth 
regiment.  At  the  same  time  the  battalion  division  was  altered  and 
Lancaster,  Littleton,  Dalton,  Franconia,  State  Hill  (Bethlehem),  and 
Jefferson  constituted  the  first  battalion,  and  the  towns  above  them  the 
second.  (Compiled  Laws  of  1805,  p.  246.)  This  was  the  status  of 
the  regiment  until  December,  1804.  Coos  county  had  been  estab 
lished  in  the  previous  year.  The  towns  of  Cobs  county  were  con 
tinued  in  the  Twenty-Fourth  regiment,  while  Bath,  Lyman,  and  Lan- 
daff  were  made  a  first  battalion  and  Littleton,  Bethlehem,  Lincoln, 
and  Franconia  constituted  the  second  of  the  newly  formed  Thirty- 
Second  regiment.  (Compiled  Laws  of  1805,  p.  251.)  This  regi 
ment  was  now  an  established  feature  of  the  general  arrangement  con 
tinuing  practically  unchanged  for  half  a  century. 

The  commanders  of  the  Twenty-Fourth  regiment  in  their  order 
from  1793  to  1804  were  Edwards  Bucknam  of  Lancaster,  1793,  Jabez 
Parsons  of  Colebrook,  1799,  Joel  Barlow  of  Stratford,  1801,  and 
Richard  C.  Everett2  of  Lancaster,  1804. 

Benjamin  Kimball  of  Bath,  in  1805,  when  the  organization  of  the 
Thirty-Second  regiment  for  northern  Grafton  was  effected,  became  the 
first  commandant.3 

1  Amory's  Life  of  John  Sullivan,  p.  437. 

s  Biography  of  Richard  C.  Everett  by  Chester  B.  Jordan,  G.  &  C.  Bar  Ass'n,  vol 

J,P-437- 

» From  1792  to  1816  regimental  commanders  were,  by  law,  accorded  the  rank  of 
lieutenant-colonel  commandant,  and  the  incumbent  held  rank  equivalent  to  that  be 
fore  and  after  that  period  accorded  to  a  colonel.  An  aid  to  the  governor  in  the 
same  period  was  also  designated  and  ranked  as  a  lieutenant-colonel  commandant. 


33 

In  estimating  the  number  of  enrolled  militia  in  any  town  in  the 
period  succeeding  the  Revolution,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
militia  act  of  March  18,  1780,  continued  the  existing  provision  for  two 
classes,  the  train  band,  composed  of  youth  and  men  from  sixteen  to 
forty  years  of  age,  and  an  alarm  list  composed  of  men  from  forty  to 
sixty  years  of  age.  By  the  act  of  December  28,  1792,  the  alarm  list 
was  abolished  and  the  military  age  was  from  eighteen  to  forty.  It 
was  made  sixteen  to  forty  in  1795  (June  10).  This  was  the  age  for  a 
long  period  afterwards.  By  the  act  of  June  24,  1786,  towns  which 
could  furnish  thirty-two  privates  and  the  proper  number  of  commis 
sioned  and  non-commissioned  officers  (13)  were  required  to  establish 
one  company;  but  when  a  town  had  less  than  thirty-two  privates 
and  a  sufficient  number  of  officers  they  were  joined  to  such  other 
corps  as  the  field  officer  might  think  proper. 

By  act  of  December  24,  1792,  which  was  really  a  new  military  code, 
the  number  of  privates  for  a  company  was  fixed  at  sixty-four,  with  no 
provision  for  a  less  number  for  the  first  company  or  a  greater  for 
the  second. 

At  the  time  of  the  second  war  with  England  three  regiments  occu 
pied  the  original  territory  of  the  Twelfth.  Later  there  was  another  in 
the  western  side  of  Coos.  The  hereditary  martial  spirit  of  the  people 
thoroughly  permeated  the  military  system  of  the  state  for  many  years 
after  the  Revolution.  So  complete,  practical,  and  effective  was  it  in 
1814  that  a  regiment  was  mobilized  for  the  defense  of  Portsmouth  in 
three  days,  and  within  the  brief  space  of  time  required  to  send  express 
messengers  with  the  summons,  and  for  the  men  to  accomplish  the 
march  from  their  rendezvous  to  Portsmouth,  five  regiments  of  infan 
try,  with  cavalry  and  artillery,  were  in  the  field  for  offensive  or  defen 
sive  operations  against  the  enemy. 

Judge  Potter  says  of  our  military  status  at  this  period : 

"  The  declaration  of  war  found  the  militia  of  New  Hampshire  in  a 
flourishing  condition,  as  much  so  as  at  any  period  of  its  existence. 
The  governor  [William  Plumer]  who  from  his  position  is  com 
mander- in-chief  of  the  militia,  though  not  a  military  man,  was  one  of 
energy,  patriotism,  method,  and  great  executive  ability.  His  heart 
and  hand  were  in  the  cause.  His  predecessors  in  that  important  office, 
without  an  exception  under  the  present  constitution,  had  been  men 
engaged  in  the  Revolutionary  struggle,  and  had  learned  by  experience 
the  worth  of  a  well  regulated  militia,  carried  out  the  maxim  of  '  in 
time  of  peace  prepare  for  war,1  and  did  not  believe  in  the  more  modern 
idea  that  '  the  militia  system  was  a  nuisance,  and  tended  to  demoral- 


34 

ize  the  people.'  The  adjutant-general  was  a  soldier  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  and  had  been  in  that  position  since  the  adoption  of  the  constitu 
tion,  and  many  of  the  officers  of  the  militia  had  been  his  comrades  in 
arms  in  that  great  struggle.  Such  men,  taught  in  the  school  of  expe 
rience,  brought  military  skill  and  pride,  without  which  skill  is  of  little 
avail,  to  the  organization  and  completion  of  our  military  system. 
Such  being  the  situation  of  our  militia,  compliance  with  the  requisi 
tions  of  the  general  government  was  met  with  the  greatest  prompt 
ness." 

In  later  years  a  spirit  of  pusillanimous  commercialism  and  non-resist 
ance  seemed  to  cause  a  deterioration  in  the  quality  of  our  militarism. 
It  is  none  the  less  the  duty  and  the  opportunity  of  all  who  possess  a 
healthful  and  progressive  patriotism  to  see  that  the  hereditary  spirit, 
the  ancient  heroic  temper  of  the  people  is  not  lost  or  abated.  I  ven 
ture  to  quote  to  this  point  the  words  of  a  New  Hampshire  statesman 
of  our  own  time,  as  they  declare  on  the  basis  of  philosophical  truth  the 
present  necessity  and  the  present  duty  in  reference  to  the  public  de 
fense,  in  view,  not  only  of  existing  circumstances,  but  also  of  the  possi 
bilities  of  the  future. 

The  quotation  is  as  follows  : 

««  As  the  situation  now  is,  nothing  could  be  more  foolish  and  crimi 
nal  than  to  leave  our  coasts  defenseless,  cease  to  build  warships  and 
dismantle  the  few  we  have,  '  beat  our  swords  into  ploughshares,  and 
our  spears  into  pruning-hooks,'  and  teach  our  young  men  that  they 
must  not  learn  war  any  more.  The  history  of  the  world  furnishes  a 
multitude  of  examples  illustrating  the  disastrous  fate  that  overtakes 
nations  when  they  discard  the  means  necessary  to  protect  them  from 
the  assaults  of  warlike  enemies.  The  great,  rich,  and  populous  empire 
of  China  furnishes  a  very  recent  example  that  demonstrates  how  foolish 
a  thing  it  is  at  this  day  for  a  nation  to  fail  to  be  prepared  to  defend 
itself  against  the  modes  and  implements  of  modern  warfare.  A  rich 
country  without  defenses  and  inhabited  by  a  timid,  unwarlike  people,  is 
a  standing  invitation  to  all  outside  adventurers  to  invade  it,  to  conquer 
and  possess  it,  stripping  the  miserable  inhabitants  of  everything,  and 
either  enslaving  them  or  driving  them  into  exile.  As  humanity  is,  at 
the  present  time,  the  millennial  period  not  having  arrived  and  there 
being  no  signs  of  it,  the  surest  guaranty  of  peace  which  a  nation  can 
have  is  the  world's  estimate  that  it  is  a  just  nation,  that  it  will  ask 
nothing  but  what  is  right,  that  it  is  prepared  for  war,  and  will  submit 
to  nothing  wrong.  The  proposition  that  war  is  wrong  per  se,  and  can 
never  be  justified,  is  a  proposition  which  cannot  be  maintained  except 


35 

upon  the  broad  ground  of  the  non-resistants.  Nations  have  the  right 
of  self-defense,  and  are  under  legal  and  moral  obligation  to  engage  in 
war  whenever  it  is  necessary  in  order  to  protect  the  lives  and  property 
of  their  citizens.  War  is  right  or  wrong  according  to  the  circumstan 
ces  that  occasion  it.  Through  all  the  ages  since  the  world  began  wars 
have  succeeded  wars  in  constant  succession,  apparently  in  obedience  to 
the  fixed  laws  that  regulate  the  lot  of  humanity."1 

I  will  add  a  brief  extract  from  a  letter  of  Gen.  John  Sullivan  which 
was  addressed  to  the  people  of  this  state  more  than  a  century  ago.  He 
said: 

"In  Republican  governments,  people  often  turn  their  thoughts  to 
that  part  of  the  constitution  which  bequeaths  them  their  liberties  ;  but 
too  frequently  forget  that  they  ought  to  pursue  measures  for  securing 
them.  We  have  already  bravely  purchased  liberty  and  independence, 
and  now  make  part  of  an  empire  where  freedom  reigns  without  control ; 
but  what  will  our  late  struggle  avail,  if  we  suffer  the  military  skill  which 
we  have  acquired  to  be  lost,  and  ourselves  to  sleep  in  seeming  safety 
till  the  avarice,  the  jealousy,  or  the  ambition  of  some  foreign  prince 
rouses  us  from  our  slumbers,  and  convinces  us  of  our  mistake? 

"  We  often  please  ourselves  by  observing  that  this  country  is  calcu 
lated  for  freedom  and  commerce,  not  for  war.  I  sincerely  join  in  the 
opinion,  and  most  ardently  wish  it  may  ever  remain  such  ;  but  I  have 
long  since  been  convinced  that  the  only  way  to  keep  peace  is  to  be 
prepared  for  whatever  events  may  come.  If  we  mean  to  keep  our 
neighbors1  sword  in  the  scabbard  we  shall  whet  our  own."2 

In  another  connection  General  Sullivan  urges  the  importance  and 
utility  of  the  military  education  of  the  youth. 

On  this  point,  addressing  himself  to  the  instructors  of  schools 
and  academies,  he  writes  as  follows  : 

"As  the  profession  of  arms  is  in  every  country  esteemed  honorable, 
even  when  the  science  of  war  is  learned  with  a  view  of  extending  con 
quests  over  unoffending  nations,  it  must  be  infinitely  more  so  when 
taught  for  the  purpose  of  national  defense,  and  for  the  security  of 
dear-bought  freedom. 

Permit  me,  therefore,  gentlemen,  to  entreat  you,  if  you  will  not 
interfere  with  the  plans  which  you  may  have  laid  for  diffusing  literary 
knowledge,  to  set  apart  some  hours  in  the  week  for  the  youth  under 
your  care  to  amuse  themselves  in  learning  the  manual  exercise  and 
military  manoeuvres.  If  this  proposal  should  meet  your  approbation, 

1  The  Safety  of  the  Republic  the  Supreme  Law,  by  Hon.  Harry  Bingham,  LL.  D., 
3  Proceed.  G.  &  C.  Bar  Ass'n,  203. 

2  Amory,  Life  of  Major-General  John  Sullivan,  p.  307. 


36 

your  own  wisdom  will  dictate  the  best  method  for  carrying  it  into 
execution.  If  relaxation  from  studies  is  necessary,  perhaps  none  can 
be  so  useful ;  and  I  am  convinced,  that,  in  a  short  time,  none  could 
be  more  pleasing  to  your  pupils.  You  will  then  have  the  pleasing 
satisfaction  to  see  the  youth,  whom  you  have  taught  to  converse  with 
the  sages  of  Greece  and  Rome,  to  admire  the  heroes  of  ancient  and 
modern  times,  and  to  value  that  freedom  for  which  they  have  fought 
and  bled,  made,  by  your  care,  proper  champions  to  defend  those 
natural  and  national  rights  which  you  have  taught  them  to  hold  in  the 
highest  estimation  " J 

With  one  more  abstract  from  contemporary  authority,  this  from  an 
author  of  national  repute,  a  theologian  who  is  a  leader  of  thought  in 
our  universities,  a  New  Hampshire  soldier,  without  fear  and  without 
reproach,  I  submit  this  outline  of  the  self-sacrificing,  well-directed, 
and  unflinching  efforts  of  the  fathers  who  were,  a  hundred  and  twenty 
years  ago,  striving  to  subdue  the  wilderness  of  northern  New  Eng 
land,  and  at  the  same  time  making  that  grand  struggle  to  establish  an 
enduring  nationality,  and  the  soldier-citizen's  plea  for  the  maintenance 
of  the  priceless  heritage  by  that  intelligent,  eternal  vigilance  which  is 
the  price  of  liberty.  In  a  recent  contribution  to  the  military  history 
of  New  Hampshire  Rev.  Dr.  Luther  Tracy  Townsend  says  : 

"  The  way  for  our  nation  to  prevent  war  is  to  be  prepared  for  it, 
and  the  way  for  her  to  check  the  wrongs  and  tyrannies  of  the  whole 
world  is  to  be  courageous  and  speak  out. 

"If,  therefore,  in  view  of  what  has  been  said,  it  is  clear  that  the 
heroic  and  military  spirit  is  of  service  and  that  it  should  not  be 
allowed  to  slumber  as  it  did  in  our  northern  states  during  the  years 
preceding  the  late  war  ;  if  it  is  clear  that  our  nation,  among  the  nations 
of  the  earth,  has  a  larger  mission  than  as  yet  has  been  claimed  for 
her ;  and  if  it  is  true  that  the  day  of  universal  peace  has  not  yet 
dawned,  then  we  may  offer  a  single  additional  plea,  namely,  that  mil 
itary  weapons  must  not  be  left  exclusively  in  the  hands  of  what  are 
called  government  and  mercenary  troops,  but  also  and  largely  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  an  organized  and  disciplined  state  militia. 

"  'It  is  certain,'  said  Madison,  '  that  liberty  cannot  be  safe  with 
powerful  standing  armies,  and  that,  without  an  effective  militia,  the 
danger  of  such  armies  cannot  be  precluded.'  The  history  and  fate 
of  the  republics  of  Greece  and  Rome,  of  Genoa  and  Venice,  are  a 
standing  warning  against  the  transfer  of  the  sword  from  the  militia  to 
a  mercenary  soldiery. 

1  Amory,  Life  of  General  John  Sullivan,  p.  318. 


37 

"  We  do  not  say  that  what  is  termed  the  '  regular  army,'  in  a  nation 
of  considerable  magnitude  like  ours,  is  useless.  Often  it  is  service 
able  in  the  exercise  of  the  balance  of  power  in  sudden  emergencies. 
It  is  available,  as  a  sort  of  movable  police  force,  in  presenting  a 
speedy  check  to  slight,  local  uprisings,  and  it  everywhere  inspires 
respect,  being  the  representative  of  the  national  government. 

"  But  what  we  insist  on  is  that  in  the  midst  of  great  perils  the  state 
militia  is  the  surest  bulwark  of  a  nation's  rights.  '  It  is  the  wall, 
behind  which  a  free  people  may  pursue  their  honest  toil  unharmed.1 
It  was  the  state  militia  of  New  England  under  the  old  provincial  flag 
of  Massachusetts  Bay  which  made  the  Indian  tremble  as  '  he  saw  them 
pass  along  in  martial  order.'  It  was  the  state  militia  of  New  England 
which  stood  the  first  shock  of  the  Revolutionary  war  in  1775.  It  was 
the  state  militia  of  New  Hampshire  that  protected  its  legislature  dur 
ing  the  disturbances  and  disaffections  in  1782.  It  was  the  state  mili 
tia  of  Massachusetts  that  quelled  the  Shays  insurrection  in  1786. 
It  was  the  state  militia  of  Pennsylvania  which  enforced  the  law  and 
maintained  order  during  the  insurrections  of  I794~'98. 

"  During  the  war  of  1812,  when  the  enemy  was  hovering  along  our 
coast  and  the  national  forces  were  withdrawn,  they  were  the  organized 
and  officered  New  England  militia  companies  which,  with  twenty-four 
hours'  notice,  garrisoned  and  protected  all  our  posts  and  seaboard 
cities.  It  was  the  state  militia  that  in  several  different  commonwealths 
quelled  the  riots  of  1877. 

"  And  in  1861,  when  our  country's  capital  was  besieged,  when  our 
national  archives  were  threatened,  when  our  way  to  Washington  was 
blocked  in  the  streets  of  Baltimore,  the  first  troops  that  fought  their 
way  to  the  protection  and  rescue  of  the  city  of  Washington  were  the 
state  militia  of  Massachusetts. 

"  These  instances  are  convincing  illustrations  of  the  efficiency  and 
necessity  of  the  sword  in  the  hands  of  a  state  militia  under  state 
orders. 

"  Our  conviction  is,  therefore,  that  every  boy  of  twelve  or  fifteen 
years  of  age  in  the  state  of  New  Hampshire  should  learn  to  go  through 
the  manual  of  arms.  And  it  should  be  a  health-giving  and  heroic  dis 
cipline  if  all  our  boys  were  taught  to  draw  and  poise  the  sword  on 
horseback  and  to  ram  the  cartridge  in  a  field  piece  of  any  calibre. 

"  Every  large  public  school  in  our  state,  like  the  schools  of  Ger 
many,  should  have  its  military  battalion  and  its  drill-master  in  science. 
Our  public  schools  should  be  called  together  and  dismissed,  not  with 
the  bell,  but  with  the  drum  and  fife. 


38 

"  And  no  argument  is  needed  to  show  that  if  the  youth  of  our  land 
had  been  thus  properly  schooled  and  drilled  prior  to  1861  the  Con 
federacy  never  would  have  reached  the  magnitude  it  assumed,  and  we 
should  not  have  been  called  upon  to  write  this  history  of  the  Six 
teenth  Regiment  of  New  Hampshire  Volunteers.1'1 

Among  the  many  hostile  influences  that  are  always  moving  openly  or 
secretly  against  a  well-regulated  and  efficient  system  of  militia  are  two 
that  are  antipodal.  The  elements  of  anarchism  are  from  their  very 
nature  antagonistic  to  all  the  instrumentalities  and  agencies  of  law  and 
order.  The  elements  of  arbitrary  and  tyrannical  autocracy  are  consist 
ent  only  with  the  existence  of  a  standing  army  to  which  is  committed, 
to  the  exclusion  of  local  police  and  local  militia,  all  those  functions 
which  pertain  not  only  to  the  maintenance  of  the  general  peace  and  the 
suppression  of  serious  disorder  in  the  state,  but  also  to  the  crushing 
out  of  justifiable  uprisings  of  the  people  against  the  exercise  of  oppres 
sive  and  intolerable  power.  Within  these  extremes  of  opposition  to 
the  militia  system,  as  an  essential  factor  in  local  state  government,  are 
many  other  fruitful  sources  of  hostility,  besides  the  inertia  of  indif- 
erence  which  is,  on  occasions,  no  less  pernicious  than  active  antago 
nism.  In  a  free  republic  it  is  still  an  essential  to  the  correct  balancing 
of  the  powers  of  the  state  and  the  rights  and  responsibilities  of  the 
people  that  the  principal  reliance  on  the  military  side  of  the  govern 
ment  should  be  a  citizen  soldiery,  educated  and  exercised  for  excep 
tional  duty  and  unexpected  emergencies,  and  not  a  permanent  and 
burdensome  segregation,  in  a  standing  army,  of  vast  numbers  of  the 
best  manhood  of  the  body  politic  from  all  of  the  productive  and  indis 
pensable  vocations  of  life  upon  which  the  progress  and  prosperity  of 
the  nation  are  absolutely  dependent. 

The  lesson  of  the  past  is  instructive  and  inspiring  to  the  thinkers 
and  actors  of  this  generation  who  are  both  conservative  and  progres 
sive.  It  calls  upon  us  to  hold  fast  to  the  doctrines  of  the  fathers  as 
illustrated  by  their  example  in  the  conservation  of  means,  at  all  times, 
to  insure  the  public  defense  without  at  any  time  placing  free  institu 
tions  in  jeopardy ;  wisely  to  organize,  diligently  to  improve,  and  liber 
ally  to  sustain  our  systems  of  local  militia  on  the  most  approved 
methods  of  discipline  and  equipment ;  and  to  make  the  principles  de 
clared  in  the  constitution  basic,  vital,  and  productive  truths  governing 
the  civic  action  of  the  people  and  their  servants  in  all  the  departments 
and  in  all  the  functions  of  the  state. 

"Standing  armies  are  dangerous  to  liberty." 

1  History  of  the  Sixteenth  N.  H.  Vols.  p.  326. 


39 

"  In  all  cases  and  at  all  times  the  military  ought  to  be  under  strict 
subordination  to,  and  governed  by,  the  civil  power." 

"  A  well  regulated  militia  is  the  proper,  natural,  and  sure  defense  of 
the  state."1 

1  Constitution  of  New  Hampshire. 

See  "  Schedule  Containing  an  Account  of  the  Services  of  the  Militia  from  1775  to 
1 783  "in  the  legislative  document  signed  "Jeremiah  Smith,  one  of  the  Comm'rs," 
House  Journal,  Feb.  12,  1791 ;  Coll.  N.  H.  Hist.  Society,  vol.  9,  pp.  415-421. 

This  report  mentions  several  companies  of  rangers  serving  at  Coos  that  have  not 
been  identified  by  the  rolls. 


INDEX   OF   NAMES. 


Adams,  Lieut.  John 10 

Allen, 28 

Arnold,  Gen.  Benedict 19 

Atkinson,  Capt    Samuel 6 

Bagley,  Timothy 2 15 

Barlow,  Joel 32 

Bayley,  Aaron 25 

Gen.  Jacob 5,  7,  8,  12,  17,  19,  20,  21,  30 

James 6 

Bedel,  Lieut.  Daniel .    25 

Col.  Timothy 4,  5,  7,  8,  15,  16,  20,  21,  23,  27,  28,  29 

Bellows,  Benjamin 17 

Blake,  James 10 

Bliss,  Lieut.  Peletiah 25 

Brant,  Joseph 12 

Brewster,  Colonel 28,  30 

Bucknam,  Capt.  Edwards 26,  31,  32 

Burgoyne,  General 4,  7,  12,  18 

Bush,  Capt.  Timothy 9 

Butterfield,  Major 23 

Caswell,  Capt.  Nathan 9,  26 

Chandler,  Capt.  Jonathan 19,  20,  25 

Chapman,  Capt.  Jonah 9 

Chase,  Col.  Jonathan 15,  17,  19,  20,  21,  31 

Childs,  Maj.  Jonathan 5,  16,  20,  25,  30 

Chittenden,  Governor 28 

Derby,  Lieut.  Jonathan 20,  25 

Dow,  Col.  Moses 32 

Eames,  Capt.  Jeremiah 6 

Ellis,  Colonel 17 

English,  James 20,  25 

Everett,  Richard  C 32 

Fay,  28 

Fenton,  Col.  John 14,  15,  16 

Folsom,  General 29 


42 

Gates,  General 7,  19,  20,  21,  23 

Gilbert,  Colonel 15 

Goodwin,  Simeon 19,  20,  23 

Grant,  Lieut.  Benjamin,  Jr 25 

Green,  Capt.  Ebenezer 31 

Haldimand,  Governor 28,  29,  30 

Hale,  Maj.  Jonathan 6,  16,  25,  30 

Hancock,  Lieut.  Henry 25 

Hayward  (Howard),  Capt.  Joshua 20,  23,  25,  30,  31 

Hazen,  Col.  Moses 8,  28 

Hobart,  Lieut.-Col.  David 14,  15,  16,  18,  20 

Howe,  Joseph 20 

Hurd,  Jacob 19 

Col.  John 5,  6,  7,  14,  15,  16,  18,  27 

Hutchins,  Capt.  Joseph 9,  10,  20,  23 

Johnson,  Lieut.-Col.  Thomas 5,  1 1,  12 

Johnston,  Lieut.-Col.  Charles.  ..4,  5,  6,  7,  15,  16,  17,  18,  23,  25,  27,  29,  30,  31 

Kent,  Jacob 5 

Kimball,  Benjamin 32 

Capt.  Peter 9 

Ladd,  Ezekiel 20 

Lieut.  James 9,  10 

John 25 

Lieut.  Samuel 25 

Lafayette,  General 7 

Langdon,  John 13 

Lincoln,  General 19,  20 

Livermore,  Samuel 28 

Lovewell,  Captain 9 

Martin,  Lieut.  William 25 

McConnell,  Thomas 25 

Metcalf,  Burgess 25 

Morey,  Col.  Israel,  5,  8,  9,  14,  16,  17,  18,   19,  20,  21,  22,  23,  24,  25,  27,  28,  29 

30.  31 
Moulton,  Job 25 

Nichols,  Col.  Moses 8 

Capt.  Thomas 9 

Noble,  Obediah 20 

Obrey,  Frederick 20 

Olcott,  Col.  Peter 5,  8,  31 

Paine,  Capt.  Samuel 9 

Parsons,  Jabez 32 

Payne,  Elisha 28,  29 


43 

Peters,  Absalom 17 

Phelps,  Davenport 18 

Plumer,  William 33 

Poor,  Enoch 13 

Porter,  Lieut.-Col.  Asa 1 4,  1 5 

Post,  Lieut.  Eldad 25 

Pritchard,  12 

Rice,  Lieut.  Ebenezer 25 

Richardson,  Capt.  Luther 25 

Rogers,  Robert 12 

Runels,  Capt.  Samuel 10 

Russell,  Capt.  Josiah 6 

Sanborn,  Capt.  Ebenezer 25 

Sanders,  Lieut.  Joshua 25 

Sewall,  Maj.  Jonathan 14,  1 5,  16 

Shays,  Daniel 37 

Shuff,  Lieut.  Jacob 25 

Simpson,  Capt.  Thomas 6 

Maj.  William 14,  15,  16 

Sloan,  Capt.  John 20,  25 

Smith,  Capt.  Jacob 10 

Capt.  Jonathan 1 1 

Stark,  Caleb 7.  29 

Stark,  Gen.  John 4,  7,  12,  28,  29,  30,  32,  35 

Stearns,  Lieut.  Peter 10 

Stone,  Capt.  Ephraim 10 

Sullivan,  Gen.  John 6,  1 2,  28,  29,  30,  32,  35 

Tillotson,  Capt.  Daniel 25 

Titus,  Capt.  Samuel 25 

Vaughan,  Lieut.  Jabez 25 

Wait,  Lieutenant-Colonel 23 

Washington,  General 8,  28 

Weare,  Meshech 13,  28 

Webb,  Lieut.  Azariah 25 

Webster,  Lieut.-Col.   David 4,  10,  17,  20,  21 

Capt.  Ebenezer 10 

Weed,  Lieut.  John 25 

Wentworth,  Gov.  John 15,  16 

Wheelock,  Eleazer 11,12 

Lieut.-Col.  John 7,  22,  28 

Whipple,  Gen.  Joseph 10,  12,  19,  31 

Whitcomb,  Maj.  Benjamin 8,  10,  1 1,  17 

Willoughby,  Capt.  John 15,  16 

Woodward,  Col.  David 7,  9,  29 


INDEX  OF  PLACES. 


Albany,  N.  Y 22 

Ammonoosuc 3 

Androscoggin 1 1 

Antrim 9 

Apthorp,  see  Littleton. 

Baltimore 37 

Bath , 3,  23,  24,  25,  28,  32 

Bennington,  Vt 3,  4,  8,  10,  18,  21,  30 

Bethlehem 32 

Boscawen 6,  9 

Boston 4,  1 6 

Bunker  Hill 10,  1 2 

Campton  9 

Canada 4,  5,  7,  8,  n,  21,  23 

Castleton,  Vt 19 

"  Cedars  " 7,  23 

Champlain,  Lake 4,  17 

Cheshire 14 

Cockburne  (Columbia) 23,  24,  31,  32 

Colebrook 3,  23,  24,  31,  32 

Columbia 23,  31,  32 

Concord,  see  Lisbon. 

Connecticut 26 

River 3,  n,  12,  16,  17,  27,  28,  30 

Conway 1 1 

Coos 7,  9,  12,  26,  33 

County 5,  6,  9,  14,  15,  32 

Lower 3,  6,  8,  10,  12 

Upper 3,  5,  6,  9,  10,  n 

Cornish 8,  15 

Dalton 23,  31,  32 

Dartmouth,  see  Jefferson. 

Dartmouth  College 7,  1 1 

Dresden 8 

Durham 10 

Exeter 7,  8,  27,  30 


46 

Fairlee,  Vt 30 

Fort  Weare 6 

Franconia,  see  Morristown 23,  31,  32 

George,  Lake 19 

Georgia 13 

Grafton  County 8,  14,  15,  16,  26,  27,  28,  32 

Gunthwaite,  see  Lisbon. 

Hanover  see  Dresden 5,  7,  8,  9,  1 1,  15,  28,  29 

Haverhill,  Mass 18 

Haverhill 3,  4,  6,  7,  8,  9,  10,  IT,  14,  16,  17,  18,  20,  23,  24,  25,  28,  29,  31,  32 

Jefferson 10,  31,  32 

Lancaster 3,  6,  9,  23,  24,  26,  31,  32 

Landaff 23,  24,  31 

Lebanon 8,  9,  15,  27,  29 

Lincoln 31,  32 

Lisbon 3,  11,23,  24,  25,  26,  27,  31,  32 

Littleton 9,  23,  24,  31,  32 

Lyman 23,  24,  28,  32 

Lyme 15,  16,  18,  20,  23,  24,  25,  31 

Massachusetts ,   37 

Morristown  (Franconia) 23,  24,  28 

Moultonborough 10 

Newbury,  Vt 4,  5,  11,  12,  17 

New  Connecticut 27 

New  England 4,  37 

New  Hampshire,  3,  5,  6,  9,  10,  n,  12,  13,  15,  17,  18,  21,  22,  23,  27,  28,  29,  30 

34,  35>  36,  37.  38,  39 

New  York 7,  27 

Northumberland 3,  6,  9,  23,  24,  26,  31,  32 

Norwich,  Vt 5,   9 

Orange 20 

Orford 3,  14,  15,  16,  17,  20,  23,  24,  25 

Peacham,  Vt n 

Pennsylvania 37 

Percy  (Stark) 31 

Piermont 20,  23,  24,  25 

Plainfield 6,  15 

Plymouth 4,  10,    14,  17,  18,  20 

Portsmouth 33 

Rhode  Island 17 

Royalton,  Vt 7,  u,  12,  17 


47 


St.  John's,  N  B 4 

Salisbury 10 

Sandwich 10 

Saratoga 4,  7,  12,  21 

Stark,  see  Percy 31 

State  Hill,  see  Bethlehem. 

Stewartstown 32 

Stratford 3,6,9,  23,  24,  31,  32 

Ticonderoga 19,  23 

Vermont 3,  5,  6,  8,  9,  u,  12,  17,  18,  22,  27,  28,  29,  30,  31 

Walpole 17 

Washington 37 

Westmoreland 10 

West  Point 8,  1 7 

Yorktown .    12 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


UBRARYUSE 

JUL2  5  1960 

••.-•  :  . 

••> 

LD  21A-50m-4,'60 
(A9562slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


